Criminal Law Casebook - Developments in leading appellate courts

Aimed at promoting the study of technical aspects of criminal law and procedure, this site considers selected cases from the top appeal courts of Australia, Canada, the UK, the USA, the European Court of Human Rights and New Zealand. From August 2004 there have been approximately 800 entries, including book reviews.

Wednesday, August 04, 2021

Registrars and disputed bail conditions

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In New Zealand we have no statutory right of appeal against a decision of a court registrar concerning bail. Registrars may determine what, ...

Thursday, July 01, 2021

Conviction appeals: a virtual proviso?

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I am not saying that updating one’s textbooks is a wonderful hobby. But it can bring to your attention cases that, although currently suppre...

Friday, May 28, 2021

The police as community caretakers - a "third source" authorisation?

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Can the police enter without warrant (or statutory or common law authority) the house of an absent occupier to search for weapons that the a...

Friday, May 07, 2021

Protecting prosecutors from police prosecution

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In Ontario (Attorney-General) v Clark 2021 SCC 18 (30 April 2021) the Supreme Court of Canada explained why Crown prosecutors should have...

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...

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About Me

Don Mathias: I practised as a barrister from December 1978 to retirement in February 2018. In 1980 I completed my PhD in criminal law. I have taught Advanced Criminal Law at the University of Auckland, and I wrote "Misuse of Drugs", our textbook on drug offences published by Thomson Reuters NZ Ltd. I was a contributing and updating author of "Adams on Criminal Law", and co-author of the first three editions of "Criminal Procedure in New Zealand" (Thomson Reuters, 3rd ed 2019).

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