Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Another look at the right to legal advice

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The relationship between the right to legal advice and the right to a fair hearing, discussed here in commentary on R v Sinclair , 15 Octobe...
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Provoking nostalgia

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I recall that some of the better law students used to laugh at judges' efforts to elucidate the acts reus of attempts, especially impos...
Friday, October 15, 2010

The right to legal advice

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The requirement that a confession must be voluntary has several components. One is the right to silence, and waiver of this right must be i...
Saturday, October 02, 2010

Interpreting positive drug tests in cyclists

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I am not a great follower of the sport of cycling. Apparently it is bad for the health of male genitals, and I can see why. But recently a ...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Ideas or decisions?

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Much that is of interest to criminal lawyers in Dickson v R [2010] HCA 30 (22 September 2010) is not discussed in the judgment. The appe...
Thursday, September 16, 2010

The best of the best

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Tom Bingham's brilliant article in the London Review of Books (26 March 2009) made many of us think he was just beginning a retirement ...
Monday, August 30, 2010

Admissiblity issue or defence?

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There is a difference between a procedural error in steps taken by an enforcement officer which provides a defence to a charge, and an error...
Friday, August 27, 2010

Saved by sunken dreams

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In Attorney-General v Tamil X [2010] NZSC 107 the New Zealand Supreme Court applied JS (Sri Lanka) v SSHD [2010] UKSC 15 (discussed here 1...
Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Doing the right thing

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And now, on the actual date of the sixth anniversary of this site, here – as my 400 th posting - is a note on Petryszick v R [2010] NZSC 1...
Monday, August 23, 2010

Time

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This week is the sixth anniversary of the start of this site. Other milestones? Forty years ago I was dux of the same secondary school th...
Friday, August 20, 2010

Bringing science to law

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For more on DNA, see the second part of the article mentioned last time: New Scientist , 18 August 2010. It confirms that the likelihood r...
Thursday, August 12, 2010

Interpreting DNA test results

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See New Scientist for an article called "Fallible DNA evidence can mean prison or freedom" by Linda Geddes, dated 11 August 2010....
Saturday, August 07, 2010

Dismissing judges for misconduct

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I imagine that all experienced barristers are familiar with bad judicial behaviour. But how bad does it have to be before a judge can be rem...
Friday, August 06, 2010

Reasonable, fair and not necessarily surprising

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When is an unannounced forced entry into an occupied dwelling reasonable? In R v Cornell   [2010] SCC 31 the majority held there were suff...
Monday, July 26, 2010

Exculpatory statements ... and trials in the fullness of time

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A brief note on two Privy Council decisions from last week: Gordon v R (Belize) [2010] UKPC 18 (21 July 2010) is an interesting little remin...
Friday, July 23, 2010

Res gestae lives again! And implied assertions are statements.

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The majority in Rongonui v R [2010] NZSC 92 did not share the Chief Justice's view that "res gestae" is an outmoded term (se...

Prior consistent statements

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Hart v R [2010] NZSC 91 (23 July 2010) addresses the law of the admissibility of prior consistent statements in the context of a claim of ...
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Collateral attack, witness immunity, and abuse of process

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An orthodox application of Hunter v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police [1982] AC 529 (HL), prohibiting the use of civil proceeding...
Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Stubborn beliefs and the elusive truth

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On how we let our beliefs get in the way of the facts, and on how contrary facts merely entrench our preconceived beliefs, see this article ...
Friday, July 09, 2010

It takes all sorts ...

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I have previously noted Lord Rodger's dark humour. Unless he is one of those chaps who seems funnier the further away one gets from him...
Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Free speech and foolishness

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Once again our passionate little nation is in thrall to the Bain case (see my comments posted 8 June 2009 ). Last night a television documen...
Sunday, July 04, 2010

Multiple judgment cases: an illusory paradox

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Sometimes multi-judgment cases challenge the analytical powers of readers. Especially when there is no headnote, and also when they seem to ...
Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Drug discovery in liquor ban searches

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One of the knotty little problems that crops up in the lower courts is whether a police search for alcohol in a person's possession in a...
Friday, June 25, 2010

Outsmarting the smart

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With my 3 July 2008 comments on Gafgen v Germany still at the forefront of your consciousness, you will be surprised that I have let a few...
Friday, June 18, 2010

Expert opinions going too far

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Experts should not express opinions about whether sexual activity was by consent without sufficient foundation: Tuhura v R [2010] NZCA 246 ...
Thursday, June 17, 2010

Weighing: fact or law?

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Where a judge has to balance one consideration against another, is the determination of the weight to be given to each consideration a quest...