(or, I know There's a Case About that Somewhere)
1 January 2019
My apologies for a long hiatus in being able to update this website, due to a combination of ill-health, trials out of Sydney, and the infuriating decision of someone at Austlii to change the urls of every High Court case, making it necessary to manually edit each reference to a High Court case in this website. Hopefully the website is now pretty up to date.
Introduction
This is a site in progress.
The purpose of this site is to be a reference for working lawyers and students in the field of criminal law in New South Wales, Australia, about recent cases in the areas of criminal law and evidence, and to assist in public discussion and education about important issues which have practical importance for many people.
This website is written by John Stratton SC. I was a Public Defender for 16 years. I am now back at the private Bar.
The inspiration of the site was the fact that although criminal lawyers in Australia are pretty well served for primary materials (statutes and cases) there is very little by way of analysis on the Internet. Many of the Australian cases I have referred to can be found at Austlii.
Although I have tried to keep this site as up to date as possible, obviously anyone using it should rely on their own enquiries. In other words, no-one involved with the site has legal liability for damages for any decisions you may decide to make based on material on this web site.
The text of the Criminal Law Survival Kit is in two large documents, one on Crime and one on Evidence. At this stage I want to keep it that way to make searching easier. If you are having trouble searching either part, remember to make sure that the document has finished downloading onto your computer before you search.
Hopefully most of the abbreviations should be obvious but the reference to 'PD' is the Public Defender's Recent Cases published in New South Wales Australia. Most of these summaries are now available at the Public Defenders' Short Notes.
I would be very interested in any comments, criticisms, questions, and suggestions about the site. At the moment I would be especially in any suggestions for the Precedents section, and the 'Guide to Circuit Work'. Please contact me with any comments or criticisms of the site, or any questions generally, at JohnStratton@bigpond.com
INDEX
PART A: CRIMINAL LAW IN NEW SOUTH WALES
Chapter 1 From Arrest to Local Court
Chapter 2 Trial Procedure and Appeals
Chapter 3 The Elements of Crime
Chapter 8 Public Order Offences
Chapter 10 Offences of Dishonesty
Chapter 11 Attempt, Conspiracy and Complicity
Chapter 12 Offences Against the Justice System
Chapter 4 Circumstantial Evidence
Chapter 5 Competence and Compellability of Witnesses
Chapter 7 Proof, Presumptions and Prima Facie
Chapter 8 The Examination of Witnesses
Chapter 9 Tendency and Coincidence Evidence
Chapter 10 The Defence Case and Character
Chapter 12 Illegally Obtained Evidence
Chapter 13 Documentary Evidence
Chapter 14 Opinion Evidence and Prior Determinations
Chapter 16 Unreliable Evidence and Corroboration
Other Resources
Criminal Law Survival Kit Guide to Circuit Work
Articles and Papers
Hearsay after the Evidence Act (updated as at November 2007)
Foundation Law: Other Court Lists
General Legal Research Databases for Australian
Legislation and Case law
By far the best place to look for Australian legislation and case law is Austlii.
Public Defenders' Sentencing Tables
Specific Case law Databases
Some Frequently Used Legislation
Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act
Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act
Criminal Appeal Act
Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act
NSW Parliamentary Counsel's Office (for historical versions of NSW legislation)
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