Criminal Litigation

The court thought it “strongly arguable” that the common law right of a jury to stop a case after the close of the prosecution case cannot survive Art 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights but that it is possible to envisage circumstances in which the jury could be reminded of this right in such a way as not to breach Art 6.

However, the practice of inviting a jury to exercise such a right has been comprehensively disapproved by the Court of Appeal and should be exercised only in the most exceptional circumstances (and certainly not in a multi-handed case of some complexity).