6KBW Essay Competition
The question for the 2023 6KBW Essay Competition will be released on 3 July 2023. Further information can be found here. To inspire any potential essayists, here are the three...
Hybrid orders & section 45A of the mental health act 1983: recent developments
What is the point of section 45A? Section 45A of the Mental Health Act 1983 (‘MHA’) was inserted by the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997. The idea behind it is that...
6KBW Essay Competition: winning essay
Here you can read the winning entry to our 2021 Essay Competition, written by Cara Shepherd. Congratulations to Cara! Second place went to Sean O'Neill and third was Tochi Ejimofo....
Stalin’s Show Trials
With the invasion of Ukraine, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague has announced that he will launch an investigation into events there and President Vladimir Putin’s...
I would have written a shorter skeleton argument, but I did not have the time…
It now appears settled that the quotation “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time” dates back to the 17th century and to Blaise...
‘Bufflehead’ and ‘Coxcomb’: Bushel’s Case
According to Clarendon, Sir John Kelyng (pronounced ‘Keeling’) was ‘a person of eminent learning, eminent suffering, never wore his gown after Rebellion, and was always in gaol’. As a judge,...
Drill music as bad character evidence
Introduction The past decade has seen the emergence of ‘drill music’ content increasingly used by the prosecution in criminal trials involving young, black, male defendants accused of gang-related offences. The...
Maintaining public order vs. the right to protest – the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill
The recent riots in Bristol and the police response to the Sarah Everard vigil have both served to spark a wider debate on the proper parameters that the legislature should...
“Egregious” failings in expert evidence: a shot across the bows from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
The conjoined appeals in R v Byrne and ors. [2021] EWCA Crim 107 related to the safety of convictions arising from separate trials in which the Crown had instructed the same expert,...
How Machiavellian was Machiavelli?
In his slim book The Prince (published 1532, written in 1513), Niccolò Machiavelli made his now notorious assertion that the prince who hopes to succeed must learn ‘how not to...