A copy of the Royal Commission Report is available below. You will need to download it and read the pdf file.
Royal Commission of Inquiry into Chamberlain Convictions, Report, Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers (1987), volume 15, paper 192
Table of Contents On April 24, 2024, Dr Robert Cavanagh, barrister-at-law, presented a lecture to the bar association entitled: “Prerogative of Mercy, Pardons, and Criminal Law Review Commissions: Why bother changing a system that has been in existence for 100 years?”…
This article provides an historical review of injustice in the Australian legal system.
Turner contends that there was a complex relationship between the government, the judiciary and the police that involved ‘an unacknowledged agreement’ where ‘law enforcement is based on violence [that] almost necessarily involves malpractice’ and ‘[y]et none of this can be admitted by Government or Bench, because to do so would be to undermine an institution on which the power of judges and politicians depends’. In the end, corruption provides the foundation for injustice to occur.
The most important requirement in all criminal trials is that the onus of establishing guilt is to the standard of beyond reasonable doubt. This standard of proof stays immovably with the prosecution throughout a trial. In Kathleen Folbigg’s case an essential element that needed to be proved beyond reasonable doubt was that she intended to kill or cause grievous bodily harm to her children.
The prosecution said that she smothered them, but failed to prove this was the case.
Expert evidence plays a key role in the decisions of courts every day across the world. In some cases, experts provide knowledge and information integral to the outcome of the judicial decision. However, experts have not always played a role in legal decision making, and this article traces the history of expert evidence, the problems and solutions developed over the last few hundred years.
Political prosecutions are commonplace in authoritarian jurisdictions but they seen more in democracies now too. Their existence is a major problem and represent a crime against democracy.
Offshore detention has been a policy of the Australian government since the Howard years. Mark Basa is currently held on Christmas Island – but how much does offshore detention cost and who profits from it. The Guardian recently published an article about the company that manages the detention centre on Nauru.