Edit: The SAC did publish something on their website on 6th July about mental illness in sentencing appeals, but really it was just a one page overview with a link back to the Sentence Appeals in Victoria Statistical Research Report that it had released back in March.It's possible that the information is in there in …
Month: May 2012
BSJ v The Queen [2012] VSCA 93: the real possibility of concoction
Edit: The conflict between NSW and Victorian and Tasmanian law was brought into stark relief in KRI v The Queen [2012] VSCA 186, where Neave JA and King AJA said [at 39]:In considering whether there was a miscarriage of justice because the evidence lacked significant probative value and thus should not have been admitted as …
Continue reading BSJ v The Queen [2012] VSCA 93: the real possibility of concoction
Johnson v Buchanan [2012] VSC 195: dog bites man; dog not at fault
We don't get very many appellate decisions on dog bite cases, even though they are (unfortunately) relatively frequent in our Magistrates' Courts.Johnson v Buchanan [2012] VSC 195 was a judicial review under O56 rather than appeal under Criminal Procedure Act s 272, after a magistrate found a dog owner not guilty of an offence when …
Continue reading Johnson v Buchanan [2012] VSC 195: dog bites man; dog not at fault
Daley v Tasmania [2012] TASCCA 4: designer drug derivatives and analogues
Minor differences at microscopic level can produce substances very similar in effect to prohibited drugs of dependence, but that aren't specifically listed in any of the schedules of the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981. Provisions in various state and Commonwealth legislation prohibit these copycats so that their possession and sale is illegal even …
Continue reading Daley v Tasmania [2012] TASCCA 4: designer drug derivatives and analogues
Counting widgets
The Chief Justice of Victoria delivered a speech at the University of Melbourne on 1 May 2012 titled, Courts and Democracy - Just another Government Agency?. A variation of it was published as an opinion piece, No place for justice on a conveyor belt, in The Age last Thursday. Both built upon a previous theme …