Remote courts – a view from home and abroad (Part 1)
The coronavirus pandemic has led to a significant change in how courts conduct their business, both here and abroad. This post considers the position in respect of the use of...
After Elgizouli: what does the judgment mean for mutual legal assistance?
In Elgizouli v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKSC 10, a seven-Justice Supreme Court held that the provision of material by way of mutual legal assistance to...
Dateline 2120: Will everyone be not guilty by reason of diminished responsibility?
What is left of guilt if science can explain a defendant’s actions? We may be a long way yet from understanding all human behaviour, but recent developments in the law...
Overseas Production Orders – A New Tool to Obtain Foreign Electronic Evidence
Introduction For years, prosecutors and defenders have acted in the confident knowledge that obtaining certain types of important electronic evidence from overseas in time for use at trial has been...
Applications to dismiss – what’s the charge?
On 28 February 2020, an Old Bailey jury acquitted Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath of offences of conspiracy to commit fraud during a period when they were senior...
The impact of Coronavirus, part 5: the Coronavirus Act 2020
As Hippocrates remarked at the height of the Plague of Athens in 430BC, desperate times call for desperate measures[1]. The deadly coronavirus has brought forth desperate measures almost everywhere, and...
The impact of Coronavirus, part 3: the emergency criminal offences
The current pandemic has led to a flood of emergency legislation. This post deals with The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020 No. 350) made under the...
The impact of Coronavirus, part 2: attending hearings in the Crown Court remotely
On 25 March 2020, the Coronavirus Act 2020 (‘the 2020 Act’) was given Royal Assent. Most of its provisions came into force immediately (s. 87). Almost all of them will...
‘Full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing’?
It has long been recognized in English law that it is no defence to a breach of an order of the court to assert that the order itself was invalid [1]....
The luck of the law – when is criminal conduct a matter of concern to the international community?
Certain crimes transcend the territorial confines of any State and become a matter of concern to the world as a whole. In those cases, where a domestic prosecution is not...