Judicial Discretion and Criminal Litigation

by Pattenden, Rosemary

• ISBN13: 9780198255673
• ISBN10: 0198255675
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1990-05-17
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This book is about the discretions exercised by criminal trial courts both at Crown Court and Magistrates' Court level and about discretion in the criminal appellate process. The aim is twofold. First, to provide a theoretical framework within which to discuss and assess the discretions.This entails defining discretion, outlining the reasons for the existence of discretion and considering the means by which discretion may be controlled. Secondly, to examine the evidential and procedural discretions whose existence is recorded in cases, statutes, and the reports of law bodies, andto list the known principles by which these discretions should be exercised. The text concentrates on the law and practice in England and Wales but the footnotes include extensive references to the decisions and statutes of Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The last chapter of the book examinesthe way in which an exercise of discretion by a trial court, the Court of Appeal, or the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division may be challenged and demonstrates that whatever the position may have been at the turn of the century few erroneous exercises of discretion are nowinviolable.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Discretion: Meaning, Rationale, and Regulation	p. 1
Trial Discretions: the Judge and the Accused	p. 32
Trial Discretions: the Judge and Witnesses	p. 72
Trial Discretions: the Judge and Counsel	p. 121
Trial Discretions: the Judge and the Public	p. 146
Trial Discretions: the Judge and the Jury	p. 156
Trial Discretions: The Judge and the Evidence	p. 229
Concealed Evidential Discretions	p. 289
Trial Discretions: Summary Trials	p. 292
Appellate Court Discretions	p. 331
Correcting Erroneous Exercises of Discretion	p. 374
Table of Cases	p. 405
Table of Statutes	p. 469
Index	p. 479
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.