https://www.scmp.com/rss/317343/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Judges in Britain, the US and Hong Kong have been receiving quite a kicking from forces that normally would be extolling them as dispensers of law and order and even justice. The conservative press in Britain, the new US president and members of the police force, even at a high level, and the conservative establishment in Hong Kong. What is going on? Why this outpouring of criticism? Has the Hong Kong Club been putting something hallucinogenic in the gin and tonics? No. In Hong Kong a good judge... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2078402/judges-take-kicking-various-jurisdictions-including-one-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/2078402/judges-take-kicking-various-jurisdictions-including-one-hong-kong?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 Mar 2017 08:13:11 +0000 “Parasitic accessory liability” – no doubt most readers will now be scratching their heads, and not because of parasitic lice. It is a strange phrase, coined by Professor Sir John Smith. Biologically a parasite is a body that freeloads on another body, to the benefit of the parasitic body only. Figuratively, it usually means older children who will not leave home and still rely on their parents financially. Neither meaning applies here. What we are looking at is the opposite of this. The... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1921903/murder-and-matters-justice-facts-are-everything?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1921903/murder-and-matters-justice-facts-are-everything?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 07 Mar 2016 08:45:45 +0000 I was recently involved in a serious criminal case in which the justice system treated two young witnesses in a very unsatisfactory way. At the time, the girl was aged just 15 years and the boy was in his late teens. Both had originally been arrested as suspects in a murder investigation. Both had been interviewed without any lawyers present, and then charged with murder and remanded in custody. After six months or so, they were re-interviewed, this time as witnesses. The murder charges were... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1670535/justice-system-failed-innocent-teens-who-spent-six-months-custody?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1670535/justice-system-failed-innocent-teens-who-spent-six-months-custody?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Dec 2014 18:17:18 +0000