Tag: criminal law
  • Domestic Violence, Employment Law, Family Law

Leave Stress

Recent legislative changes in New Zealand introducing 10 days paid leave for victims of domestic violence, are likely to throw up some thorny issues on both sides of ‘The Ditch.”
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law

A Certain Uncertainty

It has long been accepted that the element of certainty is essential to the rule of law. Long-standing legal principle dictates that the law should be certain and accessible, so it can be easily enforced and people can know where they stand. But in an ever more complicated world, that task is becoming increasingly complex.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, Traffic Law

The Road Ahead

By the time the ambulance arrived the young man in the front passenger seat was already dangerously close to death. His once fit, handsome best mate was now crumpled and bloodstained beside him, folded in awkward angles across the twisted steering wheel, his pelvis and both arms shattered in various places. The other two passengers, recently happy and carefree youngsters, were pathetically slumped at the roadside, bloodied and bewildered by the horror of sudden and devastating developments.
  • Criminal Law

The Best-Laid Plans

The weather’s already started to heat up, and summer’s on its way. Woo-hoo! That means cocktails, beers and BBQ’s by the pool, long days at the beach and a bunch of other mindless summer merriment. And speaking of mindless, it also means the start of a whole new round of summer music festivals.
  • Criminal Law, Opinion

Doli Incapax – Youngest Offender Ever Charged With Murder

In the early hours of the morning following Australia Day last year, 26 year old Patrick Slater was found dead in a Perth railway station, a 25cm chest wound had penetrated his aorta and both lungs. Last week, in the WA Supreme Court, five young adults and one teenager were found guilty of his murder. But not all those allegedly involved in the incident actually went on trial. The youngest – just 11 years of age at the time – remains in legal limbo, awaiting his fate. At that tender age, he achieves the unenviable record of being the youngest person ever to be charged with murder in Australia.
  • Criminal Law, International

On The Edge

I was contemplating suicide this week. Not personally contemplating the actual deed mind you - in fact, it may be more accurate to say that suicide was contemplating me. You see, our apartment windows face the ocean and the twice-yearly clean by the burly-blokes-with-beards-and-rope is insufficient for my taste in crystal clear views. So it was that I found myself accidentally stuck on a 2 foot wide ledge with no railing, 23 floors high, in a pair of jeans, with no shirt and no phone … and carrying a squeegee mop. A moment before, I had pushed the window that inch too far and, as the lock clicked on the inside with me on the outside, I cursed loudly and creatively. Knowing that my girlfriend was out for at least the next hour, I braced myself hard against the window and settled in for some quiet contemplation.
  • Chris Nyst, Criminal Law, Human Rights, Opinion

A Very Big Call

I was surprised to read this week former Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's comment that it is unlikely proposed anti-terror laws would see an Australian deported before their appeal is heard. Some years back a client of mine was deported to the UK by ministerial direction pursuant to section 501 of the Immigration Act. He had come to Australia with his family as a child, and was in his 20s when he was convicted of a criminal offence.