Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Sixteen!

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This blog has now existed for sixteen years. Longer than Prime Ministers, Presidents, and most Chief Justices.  Longer than much of the rele...
Thursday, August 20, 2020

Law and precision

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This, my 701 st  post, is about authority and precision as aspects of the rule of law.   Borrowdale v Director-General of Health   [2020] NZ...
Thursday, August 06, 2020

Review: “Expert Evidence About Memory in New Zealand Sexual Violence Trials and Appellate Courts 2001 to 2020” by Suzanne Blackwell, Fred Seymour and Sarah Mandeno (June 2020).

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This  Report   is essential reading for counsel who are considering calling expert psychological evidence with a view to challenging the acc...
Monday, August 03, 2020

Evidence that might be wrong

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I found it unsettling to  read of scepticism  about the prospects of success on an appeal referred to the Court of Appeal after considerati...
Friday, July 17, 2020

Unable to prevent injustice?

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Our little nation (or as we call it in pandemic times, our team of five million) was agog with disbelief today at  news of an injustice  th...
Thursday, July 16, 2020

Should guilty pleas be mitigating factors?

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It’s time for some devil’s advocacy. Should a guilty plea be a factor that mitigates sentence? Yesterday’s revision of the methodol...
Thursday, July 02, 2020

Ratio decidendi and stare decisis: how firm are the foundations?

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It is disconcerting how difficult some central ideas in law can be when they are used in practice. In theory, ascertaining the legal propos...
Thursday, June 18, 2020

Discrimination on grounds of sex: Bostock v Clayton County, Georgia

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It was most interesting, even amusing, to read the new definition of “sex” offered by the Supreme Court of the United States by a majority ...
Monday, May 04, 2020

COVID-19 lockdown: how far may you stray?

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We are currently in level 3 lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. How far may we travel from our home or residence to get some...
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  (...