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, June 19, 2024

Advocacy needs focus: Ruhumatally v The State (Mauritius) [2024] UKPC 15

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Most advocates know how burdensome - even embarrassing - it is to advance weak submissions. We used to have a Court of Appeal justice who, a...

Saturday, June 15, 2024

Openness about protection of informers: Canadian Broadcasting Corp v Named Person, 2024 SCC 21

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Procedures for reconciling the interests involved in cases where informer privilege exists are the subject of Canadian Broadcasting Corp v N...

Thursday, June 13, 2024

Defence against provoked assault: Dayney v The King [2024] HCA 22

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Sometimes, the clarity of a court’s exposition of a statutory provision makes one wonder why the legislation drafting office couldn’t come u...

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

The need for intention in the common law of joint enterprise liability: Bastian v The King (The Bahamas) [2024] UKPC 14

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A post- R v Jogee; Ruddock v The Queen [1] application of the common law of joint enterprise liability [2] is yesterday’s decision of the ...

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Suppressing suppression orders: Farish v R [2024] NZSC 65

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I am going to comment on this case without mentioning Kafka. Franz Kafka. 1883-1924. Author of The Trial , concerning prosecution for an und...

Wednesday, June 05, 2024

Fundamental but simple points in two important cases: Thornell v Jones USSC 22-982 and A (SC70/2022) v Minister of Internal Affairs [2024] NZSC 63

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Two recent cases highlight a couple of unrelated but fundamental points. When has a defendant not had effective legal representation? In Tho...

Saturday, May 25, 2024

The (ir)relevance of a sexual relationship: R v T.W.W., 2024 SCC 19

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One of the interesting things about appellate court benches that consist of a large number of judges is that a few dissenters can produce a ...

Friday, May 24, 2024

The persistence of dangerousness: Brown v United States 22-6389, May 23 2024

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A potential sentence for an offence may be increased if the offender has a record of serious offending. The policy would be to reflect the s...

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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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