Edit: For an example of a final address that was considered not to reverse the onus of proof, where an accused's responses were described as "guarded" and "deficient", see Cummins J's reasons in DPP v Baker(No 3).And the position of closing addresses that refer to lies as consciousness of guilt (as expressed in Edwards v …
Month: August 2009
No News isn't good news
It's August, which means I should have received a fresh edition of the Victorian Bar News by now. But I haven't. Nobody I know has.It's possible that I've missed an e-mail or a post somewhere advising that there's not going to be a winter edition. The by-line to this worthy industry journal is the Quarterly …
No News isn’t good news
It's August, which means I should have received a fresh edition of the Victorian Bar News by now. But I haven't. Nobody I know has.It's possible that I've missed an e-mail or a post somewhere advising that there's not going to be a winter edition. The by-line to this worthy industry journal is the Quarterly …
Law Lords leave the House
I recently posted that the new UK Supreme Court is poised to commence operation on 1 October 2009.The prelude to that occurred last week, when the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords delivered its last judgments, closing a chapter on 600 years of English legal history.Peter A Clarke posted a useful summary of the …
Dangerous driving applies to specialists
What do Michael Schumacher and pursuit-trained police officers have in common?The English Court of Appeal will not take into account their driving skills if asked to determine if they are guilty of dangerous driving.In R v Bannister [2009] EWCA Crim 1571, Thomas LJ, Collins and Owens JJ considered the conviction of a police officer who …