CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
- “Although both practitioners and scholars continue to use the terms ‘adversarial’ and ‘inquisitorial’ to inform our positive and normative insights, it is becoming more and more difficult to place today’s modern criminal justice systems in the ‘inquisitorial’ or ‘adversarial’ box and it would be better to consign these terms to history.” Discuss with reference to recent reforms in the criminal justice system of England and Wales.
- “The increasing tendency of the UK courts to be less deferential towards the rulings of the ECtHR on matters concerning the criminal process should be viewed positively as a sign of mature dialogue between a supranational Court intent on achieving a harmonious application of human rights standards across the Council of Europe and domestic courts concerned to ensure that this is not achieved at the expense of procedural tradition.” Discuss with reference to rulings of the ECtHR and of the UK Supreme Court.
- “The decision of the ECtHR in Salduz v Turkey has underlined the importance of the principle that access to a lawyer should be provided from the first interrogation of a suspect by the police. However, there is still uncertainty as to what exactly the scope of this right is and what role the lawyer should play once access has been granted.” Discuss with reference to the ongoing Criminal Legal Aid review.
- “It has been said that the truth is most likely to emerge when each side seeks to take the other by reason rather than by surprise. It follows that the principle of full disclosure by both prosecution and defence is one that should be implemented whenever possible.” Discuss with reference to disclosure requirements in the context of technological challenges and many years of funding cuts.
- “The excesses of plea bargaining should not be allowed to obscure the ways in which guilty pleas can be beneficial both for defendants and society. However, the Sentencing Council’s Guidelines on reduction in sentence for a guilty plea, together with the Court of Appeal’s guidelines on giving advance indication of sentence, exert an unacceptable pressure on defendants to plead guilty. This is beneficial neither to defendants nor to society.” Discuss, taking into account, Government proposals to introduce online guilty pleas.
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