Runaway companies: prosecuting a company in its absence
The jurisdiction to prosecute an individual in his or her absence is well established: the court must not proceed unless it is satisfied that the defendant has waived the right...
Without Rhyme or Reason: The Removal of Juries from Rape Trials
Ann Coffey MP recently gave a speech in Parliament seeking a wide-ranging inquiry into rape prosecutions.[1] One of Ms Coffey’s proposals was that juries be removed from rape trials. Increasing...
Supreme Court: parole eligibility for EDS prisoners not discriminatory
Public law analysis: The Supreme Court in R (on the application of Stott) v Secretary of State for Justice [2018] UKSC 59, [2018] All ER (D) 142 has ruled that...
Mixed messages: is there an inconsistency as to the extra-territorial ambit of disclosure between POCA and the SFO?
On 6 September 2018, the Administrative Court handed down its judgement in the case of the Queen on the application of KBR Inc v the Director of the SFO [2018] EWHC 2368...
Weekly Digest: 8 October 2018
This week’s Digest considers three judgments from the High Court. The first of these considers a challenge to the first Unexplained Wealth Order made under s.362A(1) of the Proceeds of...
The letter of the law
Even black-letter law is not limited to words on a printed page: beneath and behind statutory language, values and principles which are often nowhere to be seen in the statute’s...
Adequate Procedures and the Watchful Eye of the Prosecutor
In a recent speech to the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime (see here), Lisa Osofsky, the new Director of the Serious Fraud Office, concluded a general survey of her...
Might you be better off not attending your trial?
In July this year, Jack Shepherd was convicted at the Central Criminal Court of gross negligence manslaughter arising out of the high-speed crash of a speed boat on the River...
Has the time come for wholesale reform of the criminal justice system in England and Wales?
The news is beset by reports that the criminal justice system is breaking, damaged by decades of cutbacks to public legal services. There are calls for the review of disclosure...
Case Comment: the Court of Appeal’s decision in Tommy Robinson’s case
The decision of the Court of Appeal (Lord Burnett CJ, Turner and McGowan JJ) to quash the finding of contempt in the case of R v Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (alias Tommy...