Monday, October 19, 2020

Inquiring into alleged juror bias

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When and to what extent should an appellate court, on an appeal against conviction, inquire into an allegation that a juror was biased? Shou...
Friday, October 16, 2020

Vagueness, stays, and fast-track: three recent decisions

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A cluster of interesting cases occurred this week.   Vagueness   On handling broad statutory definitions of offences, and broad descriptions...
Sunday, October 04, 2020

Do you really want to be a judge?

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Reading  this article  on the relative lack of diversity among New Zealand judges has made me wonder why anyone would want to be a judge. I ...
Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Probative value and reliability - the evidence of prison informants

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The idea of “probative value” in  s 8  of the Evidence Act 2006 came under scrutiny, and was the subject of some disagreement, in  Roigard v...
Saturday, September 05, 2020

Trial and error: lessons for participants

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A simple little appeal judgment can contain a lot of lessons. So it is with  W (CA641/2019) v R  [2020] NZCA 286 .   The lessons? Here are t...
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...