Sunday, February 28, 2021

Preventing unfairness of one's own making

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My heart missed a beat yesterday at breakfast. A newsreader announced that the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom had held that fairness do...
Thursday, February 11, 2021

The principle of legality, rights limitation by necessary implication

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Parliament may make laws that deliberately infringe people’s rights. Including rights contained in a Bill of Rights.   But bills of rights m...
Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Consent and sexual grooming - when discussion gets irrational

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Calm rationality quickly flies out the window when talk turns to the subject of consent in the offence of rape.   This thought occurred to m...
Friday, January 08, 2021

Balancing and proportionality in admissibility decisions

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How do we predict judges’ decisions on the admissibility of improperly obtained evidence?   Some lawyers think it all depends on who the jud...
Thursday, December 10, 2020

Justifying the "implied licence" exception to trespass

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Sometimes the common law recognises that uninvited entry onto another person’s (the occupier’s) private property is not trespass. An implied...
Wednesday, November 11, 2020

When does the seriousness of offending "cut both ways" in improperly obtained evidence admissibility decisions?

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You don’t need me to point out that the law loves its metaphors. Most of all, the metaphor of scales: decisions are often described as balan...
Thursday, November 05, 2020

Upholding a defendant's right to silence

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A judicial direction to a jury which conflicted with a defendant’s right to silence – by suggesting that silence may make it easier for the ...
Wednesday, November 04, 2020

Clarifying copyright offences on the internet

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Just as I was wondering when our Supreme Court’s decision in  Ortmann v United States of America   [2020] NZSC 120   would be delivered, her...
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...