Beware, lest your cause be criminal
Recent decisions of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal have clarified the definition of a ‘criminal cause or matter’ for the purpose of section 18(1) of the Senior Courts...
Weekly Digest: 25 February 2019
This week’s Digest considers four judgments from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). In R v Cheeseman the court considered whether the householder defence was available to a soldier who...
Casement and Capitol Hill: on grammar
July 1916. Britain is at war. The detonation of 19 charges buried in mines dug by British tunnelling units under the German trenches has recently marked the beginning of a...
Weekly Digest: 11 February 2019
This week’s Digest considers five judgments, four of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and one of the Divisional Court. R v A considered the extent to which time spent...
Weekly Digest: 4 February 2019
This week’s Digest considers four judgments, two of the Supreme Court and two of the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). The first Supreme Court judgment addresses the legality of the...
Are we there yet? Criminal liability in the era of driverless cars
Since the Motor Car Act 1903, the safety of our roads has been regulated largely through the criminal law. Drivers will incur criminal liability if they drive in an unsafe...
Weekly Digest: 28 January 2019
This week’s Digest considers three judgments: one from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and two from the High Court. The first considers the defence afforded to police constables under...
Comment: R (Monica) v DPP [2018] EWHC 3508 (QB)
In R (Monica) v Director of Public Prosecutions [2018] EWHC 3508 (QB), the Divisional Court (Lord Burnett of Maldon LCJ and Jay J) refused a claim from ‘Monica’ for judicial review...
Weekly Digest: 21 January 2018
This week’s Digest considers three judgments: one from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) and two from the High Court. The first considers whether s.55(2) of the Data Protection Act...
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...