Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Interveners and discussion of extraterritoriality: R v McGregor, 2023 SCC 4

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There has been a good deal of discussion among Canadian academics over the extent to which “international” law applies in Canada. Criticisms...
Saturday, February 04, 2023

Credibility, demeanour, disclosure: deference and inconsequence: Cox v R [2023] UKPC 4

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The deference of an appeal court to demeanour-based assessments of a witness’s credibility at trial is illustrated in Cox v R (Turks and Ca...
Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Hypothetical facts demonstrating the invalidity of laws: R v Hills, 2023 SCC 2

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Courts in some legal systems can declare parliamentary legislation invalid. In at least some others courts may make a declaration that legis...
Saturday, December 17, 2022

Appropriate recognition of mitigating factors in sentencing for serious offending: Philip v R [2022] NZSC 149

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Sometimes, the person being sentenced has changed, through efforts at rehabilitation and new family connections, into a very different perso...
Monday, December 12, 2022

Has the voluntariness of confessions requirement become too complex? Beaver v R, 2022 SCC 54

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When the highest court splits 5-4 on basic issues of evidence law, one has to ask whether something is fundamentally wrong with the way the ...
Thursday, December 08, 2022

Sentencing methamphetamine dealers: the offender's role and background: Berkland v R [2022] NZSC 143

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In Berkland v R [2022] NZSC 143 (7 December 2022) the New Zealand Supreme Court clarified several aspects of sentencing for dealing in met...
Saturday, November 26, 2022

Reducing the randomness of online virtue testing: Ramelson v R, 2022 SCC 44

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When can the police legitimately trick people about whom they have no prior knowledge into committing a crime? And in what circumstances may...
Thursday, November 10, 2022

The significance of error at trial: Awad v The Queen [2022] HCA 36

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When is an error at trial sufficient to cause an appellate court to examine the safety of a conviction? Appellate judges occasionally differ...
Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Failure to caution a suspect: R v Tessier, 2022 SCC 35

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The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in R v Tessier , 2022 SCC 35 (14 October 2022) concerns the admissibility consequences of a statemen...
Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Three fundamentals of evidence law: R v Schneider, 2022 SCC 34

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You wouldn’t expect to find huge differences in the law of evidence between common law legal systems, even where legislation has replaced th...
Friday, October 07, 2022

Tikanga Māori and the common law of New Zealand: Ellis v R (Continuance) [2022] NZSC 114

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Today our Supreme Court released two decisions in the Ellis case. The case concerns the convictions in 1993 of the appellant for sexual offe...
Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Attempting to have possession of a controlled drug

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If legislation [1]   has omitted to provide for an offence of procuring a controlled drug for supply, and so also omitted an offence of att...
Thursday, September 08, 2022

The principle underlying judicial recognition of retrospective removal of a defence: Stephens v The Queen [2022] HCA 31

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If the legislature changes the law by removing a defence, and that change is not specified to apply to trials that have commenced and not be...
Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Identifying unlawful benefit

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Calculating a person’s unlawfully obtained benefit from criminal activity can raise some complicated issues. Suppose a lotto ticket has been...