The decision making process of appeals against conviction in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).

Roberts, Stephanie (2009) The decision making process of appeals against conviction in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division). PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Preview

PDF Download (7MB) | Preview

Abstract

This study seeks to find an explanation for the two main problems associated with the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal which are, its problems in identifying and correcting the wrongful convictions of the factually innocent, and its inconsistent, unpredictable and contradictory decision making. This study uses empirical data collected from the judgments of the Court to analyse the decision making process of the Court in relation to the powers given to it in the Criminal Appeal Act 1995. The data collected is used to analyse the Court's powers in four main areas which are appeals where the appellant wishes to adduce fresh evidence, appeals where there is a 'lurking doubt', appeals where the appellant is arguing an error occurred either pre-trial or during the trial and the Court's approach to the issue of ordering a retrial. The research conducted for this thesis is a replication study of previous research carried out for the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice which proposed reforms to the Court's powers and ultimately led to the Criminal Appeal Act 1995. The aim of the research is to analyse whether the Court uses an identifiable approach to its various powers, in order to find an explanation as to why the Court has proved so deficient at identifying and correcting the wrongful convictions of the factually innocent, and why its decision making is so inconsistent and unpredictable.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Law
Sets:	Collections > ProQuest Etheses Departments > Law
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/2758

Actions (login required)

Record administration - authorised staff only