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The winning essay is ‘A fiction of defendant participation: Single Justice Procedure offences should be moved to the civil jurisdiction’ by Hal McNulty
Brief summary
Through the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), defendants have become so marginal in their own criminal trials that it calls into question the state’s compliance with Article 6 of the ECHR.
How and why did you pick this topic?
This past year I have been reading Tristan Kirk’s articles in The Standard in which he tells the stories of people convicted through the SJP. Our criminal justice system is drastically under-resourced and overstretched, so ways to make efficiency savings are very attractive to lawmakers. But the SJP does this by cutting protections for defendants. I wanted to find a way to keep these savings that would not disadvantage the accused.
The full essay is reproduced below.
Hal McNulty is the winner of the Bar Council's Law Reform Essay Competition 2024.
Brief summary
Through the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), defendants have become so marginal in their own criminal trials that it calls into question the state’s compliance with Article 6 of the ECHR.
How and why did you pick this topic?
This past year I have been reading Tristan Kirk’s articles in The Standard in which he tells the stories of people convicted through the SJP. Our criminal justice system is drastically under-resourced and overstretched, so ways to make efficiency savings are very attractive to lawmakers. But the SJP does this by cutting protections for defendants. I wanted to find a way to keep these savings that would not disadvantage the accused.
The full essay is reproduced below.
The winning essay is ‘A fiction of defendant participation: Single Justice Procedure offences should be moved to the civil jurisdiction’ by Hal McNulty
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