According to the Daily Mail, last week a UK judge ordered an accused Muslim woman to remove her veil in Court before he (the judge) would accept her plea.Can the court order that? Is it a contempt of court for her to refuse?I started writing this post a few weeks ago when a similar thing …
Tag: privacy
Anti-corruption bodies set to start 1 Jan 2013?
I mentioned back in October that Brendan Murphy QC was appointed as the newly-created public interest monitor.Last week the Victorian government appointed the head of its new IBAC, Stephen O'Bryan SC, and the Victorian Inspector, Robin Brett QC, who will oversee the IBAC.One recent opinion article in The Age cast doubt on the likely effectiveness …
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Monitoring the public interest
Andrew McIntosh, the Minister responsible for establishing an anti-corruption commission, recently announced the appointment of Brendan Murphy QC as Victoria's first Public Interest Monitor.The PIM is appointed under the Public Interest Monitor Act 2011. His role is to appear at the Supreme Court and Administrative Appeals Tribunal when investigative agencies apply for confidential or secret …
Pretext recording contrary to Charter and Evidence Act?
Edit: While 'pretext' conversations arranged by the police without an appropriate warrant seem likely to be excluded, a staged conversation initiated entirely be a third party (such as a complainant) apprarently does not lead to the same result: F M J v The Queen [2011] VSCA 308.A colleague put me on to a recent case …
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Hogan v Hinch [2011] HCA 4: Hinch's High Court bid fails
While the High Court continues to mull over its decision in Momcilovic (transcripts available here, here and here) the justices have handed down another judgment (peripherally, at least) touching on Charter issues. Despite some big issues being raised in argument, Hogan v Hinch is a case where the leading authorities on each point were applied, …
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