Tuesday, February 01, 2022

Waving the flag: Pwr v DPP [2022] UKSC 2

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Flag waving during a demonstration in public in central London was an offence in Pwr v DPP [2022] UKSC 2 (26 January 2022). Legislation, d...
Thursday, December 09, 2021

Mistakes that are not innocent mistakes: Bell v Tasmania [2021] HCA 42

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Criminal responsibility is not usually imposed on people who are in no way morally blameworthy. At least, that is so for serious crimes as o...
Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Conviction appeals and judicial differences - lack of unanimous appellate verdict in a final appeal

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In most appeals against conviction the focus is, to use the broadest of non-technical descriptions, on errors and on the soundness of the ve...
Friday, October 08, 2021

Rights consistent reading-down of the three strikes sentencing legislation

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Our Supreme Court has allowed the appeal against sentence in the Fitzgerald case which I mentioned here on July 17, 2020: Fitzgerald v R ...
Tuesday, October 05, 2021

Fair criticism?

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Yesterday our media published an article critical of a judge who had repeatedly failed to direct juries correctly on the burden and standar...
Thursday, September 23, 2021

Convictions arising from "the same facts": availability of the special plea of previous conviction

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Whether a plea of previous conviction is available depends, in New Zealand, on the application of s 46 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011. ...
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...