Saturday, April 25, 2020

Stare decisis: contrasting judicial opinions in Ramos v Louisiana

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In my  post   of 16 April I suggested that ascertaining the ratio of a multi-judge case can be entertaining. Who could have guessed how gre...
Thursday, April 16, 2020

Police retention and use of unlawfully obtained information: Smethurst v Commissioner of Police [2020] HCA 14

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If the police wrongfully seize a cell phone and make their own copy of the information stored on it, can the owner of that information requ...
Tuesday, April 07, 2020

Unreasonable verdict and reasonable doubt

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In  Pell v The Queen   [2020] HCA 12 (7 April 2020) the High Court made some important distinctions between fact-finders and appellate cou...
Friday, February 21, 2020

Money laundering, structuring, implications of Lordianto v The Queen [2019] HCA 39

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Money laundering can be committed recklessly. When you add that fact to what you have learnt from  Lordianto v The Queen  [ 2019] HCA 39  (...
Thursday, February 06, 2020

Differing desirability: admission of improperly obtained evidence in New South Wales

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Illegal video surveillance of animal cruelty, producing a series of recordings, followed by application for a search warrant, and then the ...
Sunday, December 22, 2019

On the evidence: the verdict in Lundy

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Don’t let me fall into the trap of getting into an argument about the  Lundy  verdict. By verdict I mean the verdict reached by the Supreme...
Friday, December 20, 2019

Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis - or do we?

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Would the result in  Lundy v R   [2019] NZSC 152 have been the same if it had been determined under our current appeal provisions,  s 232 ...
Friday, December 13, 2019

All in the way you look at it

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De Silva v The Queen   [2019] HCA 48  (13 December 2019) is one of those cases in which, for an uninvolved reader, the dissenting judgment ...
Friday, December 06, 2019

New hardcopy edition of Misuse of Drugs

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As any intelligent person knows, it is better to read about drug offences than to commit them. With that in mind, it can only be helpfu...
Wednesday, December 04, 2019

Suspicion

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If you ever thought statutory interpretation could sometimes be a bit puzzling, take comfort from the High Court of Australia’s struggle in...
Tuesday, December 03, 2019

As Clive James said ...

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Now that rain has stopped play at Seddon Park, let me share some of my favourite Clive James quotes: From  The Meaning of Recognition –...
Monday, December 02, 2019

Appellate review to identify miscarriages of justice in conviction appeals

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If you were ever worried about whether conviction appeals under  s 232(2)(c) and (4)  of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 are determined by w...