Friday, April 16, 2010

Liability in international criminal law – exclusion from refugee status

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International criminal law may contain wider complicity provisions than exist in domestic law. Different standards for decision making can a...
Thursday, April 15, 2010

Fundamentals of secondary liability and wilful blindness

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A useful reminder of the meanings of aiding, abetting, and wilful blindness has been given by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Briscoe [2...
Friday, April 02, 2010

Notional even-handedness?

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Who can more easily adduce hearsay evidence – the prosecution or the defence? Or are they equal? In Morgan v R (criticised here recently ) ...

Slaves to the system?

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For refusal of counsel's application for leave to withdraw from acting, see R v Cunningham [2010] SCC 10 (26 March 2006).
Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Current purpose or original meaning: interpreting the US Constitution

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Justices Breyer and Scalia debate Constitutional interpretation! Video clip available here.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Possession and internet files

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The meaning of possession of electronic files has been established by the Supreme Court of Canada in R v Morelli [2010] SCC 8. This case co...

Evidence of fingerprint matches

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For an interesting article on how fingerprint evidence should be given, see New Scientist, 22 March 2010 , "Fingerprint evidence to ha...
Thursday, March 18, 2010

The Waihopai spy base case

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In this site, which is aimed at the decisions of leading appellate courts, I do not usually comment on trials. However, today our little nat...

We disagree, but we won’t say why

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The majority in Morgan v R [2010] NZSC 23 (16 March 2010) do not explain why they reach the opposite conclusion to that of the dissenting ...
Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Small, but perfectly formed – judicial acceptance of LCN DNA analysis

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Updating the forensic use of LCN DNA analysis: R v Wallace [2010] NZCA 46 surveys developments and refers to R v Reed & Garmson (2009...
Monday, February 15, 2010

Criminal Procedure Simplification

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For my comments on aspects of the New Zealand Law Commission's Criminal Procedure (Simplification) Project – Reforming Criminal Procedur...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010

When fallacies don’t matter

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The United States Supreme Court has discussed the prosecutor's fallacy in McDaniel v Brown [2010] USSC No 08-559, 11 January 2010. Afte...
Monday, January 18, 2010

Overview (4) – Reasoning with uncertainty

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We can be sure about very little. " 'We reason rashly and at random ,' says Timaeus in Plato, ' because our judgements, lik...
Thursday, January 14, 2010

Overview (3) - Balancing

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Application of rules is the least interesting part of judicial decision making. Vastly more intellectually absorbing is the process of reach...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Overview (2) – Standards of proof

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[I have seen that this is an oft-visited posting. For revision and updates, see the Introduction in the pdf of this site, linked here .] T...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Overview (1) – Interpreting the proviso

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This introductory part continues with my overview of important topics that are often addressed by the appellate courts in criminal cases. Wh...
Monday, January 11, 2010

Introduction (4) – the quest for clarity

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How wonderful it would be if laws could be simple. The quest for simplicity struggles against the head wind of reality: life is complicated....
Friday, January 08, 2010

Introduction (3) – The law teachers

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Having described appellate judges as being happily regressed to studious habits, I should turn to consider the law teachers. Academic life h...
Thursday, January 07, 2010

Introduction (2) On judges

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It is not unusual for a lawyer whose case on appeal is rejected to think that the judges have twisted the facts to suit that result. Montaig...
Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Introduction (1) – the point of view

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"To find a congenial subject, and to express that subject as lucidly, as sincerely, as frankly as possible, appears to me to be the mos...
Sunday, January 03, 2010

And now for something completely different ...

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Posts to this site will continue. There will be a new approach. Instead of a commentary on new cases as they are decided, I will post occasi...
Monday, August 24, 2009

Now we are five

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Five years of blogging! That concludes my ongoing commentary, but I may occasionally add updates to particular entries. To locate these, sea...
Monday, August 10, 2009

Disclosure of warnings and diversions

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It may be necessary for the prosecution to disclose to the defence information about prosecution witnesses concerning warnings that they hav...
Saturday, August 01, 2009

On being informed about decisions to prosecute

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There is a right to be told of how decisions about whether or not to prosecute are made: R (Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions [2009]...
Friday, July 31, 2009

Disclosure, fair trial, truth and justice

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No progress in development of the idea of the accused's right to a fair trial was made in R v Bjelland [2009] SCC 38 (30 July 2009).   ...