This report addresses the questions of when, and in what ways, an accused’s state of intoxication (whether by alcohol or drugs) is relevant to their trial for a criminal offence. Kate Warner makes 13 recommendations for reform including the key recommendation that evidence of intoxication should be relevant to any mental element, including intention, knowledge...

Carol Harlow (LSE) explores how the UK Human Rights Act compromises between upholding European human rights standards and the Westminster principle of parliamentary sovereignty. She finds that the UK government has sometimes been impatient with constraints placed on the war on terror and the war on crime. Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms on human rights may...

The Australian SLR remains the experienced criminal's assault weapon of choice writes Philip Alpers. Of the 7,664 M-16 and SLR assault rifles delivered to the PNG Defence Force since 1971, only 2,013 (26 per cent) remain in stock. Now, Australia faces the near-inevitability of its own peacemakers facing its own guns.

This publication presents national crime statistics relating to victims of a selected range of offences that have been recorded by police. These statistics provide indicators of the level and nature of recorded crime victimisation in Australia and a basis for measuring change over time. As not all crimes are reported to or recorded by police...

Victoria’s system of criminal record checks needs legislative reform to meet the pressures of increasing demand and changing technologies, according to a new report by Paul Chadwick, Victorian Privacy Commissioner (OVPC). The report recommends that the Government develop a Controlled Disclosure of Criminal Records Bill to provide for the first time in Victoria a central...