In a fascinating and informative article, Professor Zander warns the issues that will dominate the review are predictable and a waste of time for everyone involved.
Zander writes: ‘Altering the statutory test was tried in 1968 and again in 1995 to no effect. There was nothing wrong with the test in the 1907 Act or the 1968 Act or the 1995 Act (the original 1907 formulation was perhaps the best). The problem lies not in the formulation of the test, but in the Court of Appeal’s approach to the test. Argument over tweaking of the statutory test is a waste of everyone’s time.’
He notes that the Criminal Appeal Act 1907 gave the convicted person ‘the possibility of persuading the Court of Appeal that the jury got it wrong. The unfortunate reality is that the plain import of this has never been accepted by the judges’.
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