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Excluding evidence (or staying proceedings) to vindicate rights in Irish and English law*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Tony Ward  and
Clare Leon
Tony Ward*
Affiliation:
University of Hull
Clare Leon*
Affiliation:
Canterbury Christ Church University
*
Dr Tony Ward (corresponding author), Law School, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. Email: A.Ward@hull.ac.uk.
Dr Clare Leon, School of Law, Criminal Justice and Computing, Canterbury Christ Church University, North Homes Road, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1QU, UK. Email: clare.leon@canterbury.ac.uk
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Abstract

The constitutional duty of the Irish state ‘to defend and vindicate the personal rights of the citizen’ is the basis of a strict rule excluding unconstitutionally obtained evidence. Although English courts recognise a similar duty to ‘vindicate human rights and the rule of law’, their powers to exclude evidence or stay proceedings for abuse of process are extremely flexible and discretionary. In both jurisdictions, there has been particular controversy over the application of these powers to covert recordings that breach legal professional privilege. This paper argues that the duty to vindicate rights and the rule of law underpins both the exclusion of unlawfully obtained evidence and the punishment of offenders. It requires a balancing exercise, not between defendants' rights and an incommensurable public interest but, rather, between two aspects of the same constitutional duty of the courts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 571 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 2015 

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Footnotes

*

This article became available the day before the Irish Supreme Court reformulated the exclusionary rule in DPP v. JC [2015] IESC 31. [Footnote added on 1 May 2015, after first online publication.]

References

1. Constitution of Ireland 1937, Art 40.3.1.

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14. [2006] QB 60.

15. See http://www.thejournal.ie/the-last-justice-minister-said-he-was-not-aware-garda-recordings-were-taking-place-1382794-Mar2014/ (accessed 15 August 2014).

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17. Postal and Telecommunications Act 1983 s 98. The Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunications Messages (Regulation) Act 1993 allows covert recording in the investigation of serious crime, but only with ministerial authorisation (s 2).

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103. Maxwell, above n 11, at [97].

104. See Warren, above n 10, at [76], where Lord Brown distinguishes the two cases on the basis that in Maxwell the defendant was ‘induced to act to his detriment’ by confessing. Why this should make a difference is not explained.

105. Ashworth, A ‘The exclusion of evidence obtained by violating a fundamental right: pragmatism before principle in the Strasbourg jurisprudence’ in Roberts, P and Hunter, J (eds) Criminal Evidence and Human Rights (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2012) pp 158–159, takes this to be the ECtHR's view inGoogle Scholar Jalloh v Germany (2007) 44 EHRR 32 and Heglas v Czech Republic (2009) 48 EHRR 44.

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113. An argument rejected by the Court of Appeal in R v Button [2005] EWCA Crim 516.

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116. Above n 114.

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118. Warren, above n 10, at [37].

119. [1994] 1 AC 42 at 62.

120. Ibid, at 74–75.

121. Ibid, at 77.

122. We assume that this is why Sanders et al (above n 78, p 708) find it ‘bizarre’ that ‘victims, or some notion of their rights, should influence trial outcomes’.

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