“The case was concerned with the approach to be taken in confiscation proceedings following a conviction for failing to comply with the requirements of a planning enforcement notice. The result can be contrasted with that in an earlier confiscation case, R v Panayi (Andrew) [2019] 4 WLR 85, which was the subject of a video case review in our ‘Top 50 Cases of 2019’ and is available to view on the website. The court in this case also had to consider the sentencing powers of the Crown Court where a case is committed to it under section 70 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 for consideration of a confiscation order ...”

ADDED Thursday 29^th October 2020

“The case related to the sentencing of a man who had killed his own mother in a frenzied knife attack and it led the Court of Appeal to review the full range of possible disposals available to a sentencing judge under the Mental Health Act 1983 and to review the earlier authorities on the correct approach to the exercise of deciding which of those provisions to apply. The court also considered what level of discount should apply for a guilty plea in circumstances where defence lawyers take the view that psychiatric evidence is necessary to investigate fitness to plead, insanity or diminished responsibility or where a defendant has a significantly reduced ability to understand what is alleged against him …”

ADDED Wednesday 28^th October 2020

“The case came before a specially constituted five-judge court, including the Lord Chief Justice, the President of the Queen’s Bench Division and the Vice President of the Criminal Division and was concerned with the test of dishonesty in English criminal law. The court also had to consider the doctrine of precedent - which it described as the very foundation stone of the administration of justice and the rule of law - and to decide whether to follow a Court of Appeal decision which had stood for more than 35 years or a much more recent decision of the Supreme Court, even though, in the latter case, the Supreme Court’s consideration of the concept of dishonesty had not been necessary to its decision and would not, therefore, according to the rules of precedent as hitherto understood, have been binding on the Court of Appeal in this case …”

ADDED Tuesday 27^th October 2020

“The case was concerned with the evidential status of a police interview with one defendant inculpating a co-defendant, where the interviewee changes his story at trial and instead gives evidence exculpating his co-defendant ...”

ADDED Monday 26^th October 2020

“The case arose from an extradition request by the US government in relation to an alleged drugs kingpin. The issues raised on the appeal to the Divisional Court included alleged violations of his rights under Article 3 of the European Convention if were extradited to the United States and included reference to the alleged suicide in the controversial Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan of the disgraced paedophile financier, Jeffrey Epstein …”

ADDED Friday 23^rd October 2020

“The judgment involved a wide-ranging review of the Unexplained Wealth Order regime and the associated Interim Freezing Order provisions, with detailed consideration of the holding requirement, the value requirement, the income requirement, the serious crime requirement and the Politically Exposed Person requirement. The case also prompted the court to consider whether or not such applications should ordinarily be held in private ...”

ADDED Thursday 22^nd October 2020

“The case was concerned with a post-conviction diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder and whether it impacted on the safety of the appellant’s convictions for placing a hoax bomb with intent and for engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism ...”

ADDED Wednesday 21^st October 2020

“The case was concerned, firstly, with the interplay between the various different types of investigation now contemplated within the much amended Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and, specifically, whether the existence of a concurrent cash investigation, detained property investigation or frozen funds investigation can curtail the availability of a disclosure order in a confiscation, civil recovery, money laundering or exploitation proceeds investigation. And the court addressed, secondly, the jurisdiction of the High Court to entertain an appeal by way of case stated from the decision of a Crown Court judge whether to make a disclosure order and, if so, in what terms ...”

ADDED Tuesday 20^th October 2020

“The case related to an appeal by the General Medical Council from a decision of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal not to strike off a doctor who had been convicted by a jury of domestic abuse in the form of Controlling and Coercive Behaviour and Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm but instead to suspend him for 12 months. It prompted the court to review, generally, the authorities on appeals from a professional disciplinary tribunal and to consider, specifically, the status of the Sanctions Guidance, which is published jointly by the GMC and the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service ...”

ADDED Monday 19^th October 2020

“The case related to steps taken by the Home Secretary and the National Crime Agency in actioning a request for Mutual Legal Assistance from the US Department of Justice. It prompted the court to give consideration to whether particular safeguards are required when conducting a closed hearing in respect of material which attracts public interest immunity, specifically in this case the appointment of a special advocate. It also led the court to map out what it described as a hierarchy of proceedings, with applications affecting the liberty of the subject at the top and applications relating to search and seizure warrants towards the bottom of this so-called hierarchy. All talk of an Englishman’s home being his castle now seems to belong to a dim and distant past ...”

ADDED Friday 16^th October 2020