The right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty has been described as the 'golden thread' running through the web of English criminal law and a "fundamental postulate" of Irish criminal law which enjoys constitutional protection. Reflecting on the bail laws in the O'Callaghan case, Walsh J. described the presumption as a 'very real thing and not simply a procedural rule taking effect only at the trial'. The purpose of this book is to consider whether the reality matches the rhetoric surrounding this central precept of our criminal law and to consider its efficacy in the light of recent or proposed legislative innovations. Considerable space is devoted to the anti-crime package introduced by the government in the period of heightened concern about crime which followed the murder of journalist Veronica Guerin. Described by the Bar Council as "the most radical single package of alterations to Irish criminal law and procedure ever put together, " the effect of the package was an amendment of the bail laws and the introduction of preventative detention; a curtailment of the right to silence for those charged with serious drugs offences and the introduction of a novel civil forfeiture process to facilitate the seizure of the proceeds of crime, a development which arguably circumvents the presumption. Given these developments, the question posed in the book is whether we can lay claim to a presumption that is more than merely theoretical or illusory.

A collection of some of the most famous cases in English law - with an explantion of how they changed things - by two leading commentators. Every UK lawyer knows of Woolmington v. Director of Public Prosecutions, the ruling which established the ëgolden thread of English lawí whereby the burden of proof lies with the prosecutor in a criminal trial, even in the case of murder. But who was ëWoolmingtoní and how many people know that he escaped the death penalty at the eleventh hour, or that he was twice tried for murder? ëLords give man back his lifeí as the Western Gazette put it. Likewise, in the civil law, how and why did a Mrs. Donoghue come to be drinking a bottle of ginger beer containing the remnants of a snail, an event which would ultimately determine ñ at the highest level - that ëthe categories of negligence are never closedí? And how did the tranquil market town of Wednesbury come to be legal shorthand for ëunreasonablenessí. In Famous Cases: Nine Trials that Changed the Law the authors have painstakingly assembled the background to a selection of leading cases in English law. From the Mareva case (synonymous with a type of injunction) to Lord Denningís classic ruling in the High Trees House case (the turning point for equitable estoppel) to that of the former Chilean head of state General Pinochet (in which the House of Lords heard the facts a second time) the authors offer a refreshing perspective to whet the appetite of every law student, general reader or seasoned practitioner interested in how English law evolves.

This volume considers the way in which the focus on individual rights may constitute an obstacle to ensuring fairness in criminal proceedings. The increasingly cosmopolitan nature of criminal justice, forcing legal systems with different institutional forms and practices to interact with each other as they attempt to combat crime beyond national borders, has accentuated the need for systems to seek legitimacy beyond their domestic traditions. Fairness, expressed in terms of the right to a fair trial in provisions such as Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, has emerged across Europe as the principal means of guaranteeing the legitimacy of criminal proceedings. The consequence of this is that criminal procedure doctrines are framed overwhelmingly in 'constitutional' terms – the protection of defence rights is necessary to restrict and legitimate the state's mandate to prosecute crime. Yet there are various problems with relying solely or predominantly on defence rights as a means of ensuring that proceedings are 'fair' or legitimate and these issues are rarely discussed in the academic literature. In this volume, scholars from the disciplines of law, philosophy and sociology challenge various normative assumptions underpinning our understanding of fairness in criminal proceedings.

A comparative and collaborative study of the foundational principles and concepts that underpin different domestic systems of criminal law.

This book provides the most comprehensive and authoritative book yet published on the subject of criminal investigation, a rapidly developing area within the police and other law enforcement agencies, and an important sub discipline within police studies. The subject is rarely out of the headlines, and there is widespread media interest in criminal investigation. Within the police rapid strides are being made in the direction of professionalizing the criminal investigation process, and it has been a particular focus as a means of improving police performance. A number of important reports have been published in the last few years, highlighting the importance of the criminal investigation process not only to the work of the police but to public confidence in this. Each of these reports has identified shortcomings in the way criminal investigations have been conducted, and has made recommendations for improvement . The Handbook of Criminal Investigation provides a rigorous and critical approach to not only the process of criminal investigation, but also the context in which this takes place, the theory underlying it, and the variety of factors which influence approaches to it. It will be an indispensable source of reference for anybody with an interest in, and needing to know about, criminal investigation. Contributors to the book are drawn from both practitioners in the field and academics.

This is the new edition of the leading textbook on criminal law by Professors Simester and Sullivan, now co-written with Professors Spencer, Stark and Virgo. Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law is an outstanding account of modern English criminal law, combining detailed exposition and analysis of the law with a careful exploration of its theoretical underpinnings. Primarily, it is written for undergraduate students of criminal law and it has become the set text in many leading universities. Additionally, the book is used as an important point of reference in academic writing and postgraduate research in England and abroad. Simester and Sullivan's Criminal Law has been cited by appellate courts throughout the world. Review of Previous Edition: '... undoubtedly a first-rate companion for any undergraduate or post-graduate law course. Since attaining international recognition and citation in appellate courts worldwide, the security of the text's position as a point of academic reference remains as steadfast as ever.' John Taggart, Criminal Law Review

In this book, the authors propose a set of improved and modernised provisions expressing the general principles of criminal responsibility. This set of principles will comprise a 'General Part' which, it is proposed, will form part of Singapore's Penal Code. The key objective of devising and enacting the General Part is to significantly revitalise the Penal Code and restore many of its original technical attributes. Each chapter of this book comprises: (a) a carefully considered and drafted provision on a general principle of criminal responsibility; (b) a summary of the existing law in Singapore pertaining to that principle; (c) a selection of recent formulations of that principle from other jurisdictions to benchmark Singapore's law (both current and proposed) with international best practices; and (d) a comparison of these formulations with the provision proposed in this book for inclusion as a General Part in Singapore's Penal Code.