Book Description

This book is about the judicial discretion to stay criminal proceedings, and is the first full-length monograph to be published in England on the topic. It presents a fresh perspective on the discretion under consideration by setting the discretion against the general backdrop of the law of criminal evidence. In recent times, a number of evidence scholars have demonstrated persuasively that every exclusionary rule and exclusionary discretion in the law of criminal evidence can be explained by reference to the protection of the innocent from wrongful conviction and/or the protection of the moral integrity of the criminal process. It is demonstrated in this book that the judicial discretion to stay criminal proceedings can, and should, be viewed in the same way. A comparative perspective is adopted where appropriate, with particular reference being made to the jurisdictions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and the United States.