CBA Lecture: Directing juries about delay: the Law Commission, comparative perspectives and some impressions from a ‘repat’

Wednesday 28th February
18.00 – 19.00
Online

Introduction: Paul Jarvis (6KBW College Hill) – CBA Education Joint Chair.

Speaker:  Professor Andrew Choo

Directing juries about delay: the Law Commission, comparative perspectives and some impressions from a ‘repat’

In its consultation paper on evidence in sexual offence prosecutions the Law Commission considered the practice of directing juries on the significance of delay. A specific question asked, against the background of a consideration of the importance of countering rape myths, was whether the more prescriptive approach taken in certain jurisdictions might point the way forward for England and Wales. As an academic who returned to Australia last month after over three decades in England, I offer some tentative thoughts on selected issues raised by this aspect of the Law Commission paper, with particular reference to the experience of the Australian state of Victoria.

Andrew Choo, BCom, LLB (NSW), DPhil (Oxford), FAcSS

Andrew Choo is a Professor of Law and, currently, Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Law at Monash University. He joined the Faculty in January 2024 from the Law School of City, University of London, where he had been a Professor of Law since 2012.

He has also held Professorships at the University of Warwick and Brunel University, following earlier appointments at the University of Leicester and the University of New South Wales. Andrew is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of the UK.

His published work has been cited in judgments in the decisions of various appellate courts, including the UK Supreme Court, the Privy Council, the Supreme Court of Canada, the High Court of Australia, the New Zealand Supreme Court and the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.

This lecture will be recorded with the access link circulated at 14.00hrs on the day of the talk (28th February).