Articles tagged as Criminal Law
Latest Law Papers tagged as Criminal Law
Including law essays, dissertations, problem questions, case summaries, and law lectures, suitable for law students working towards their LLB / LLM qualifications or those studying for the new SQE.
National Coal Board v Gamble [1959] 1 QB 11
Case Summaries
M, who worked for a haulier firm, had his lorry filled up at a National Coal Board (NCB) colliery. He then drove to a weighbridge… ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Lockley [1995] Crim LR 656
Case Summaries
R v Lockley [1995] Crim LR 656: robbery, continuing appropriation and the connection between the theft and the use of force. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Smith v Chief Superintendent of Woking Police Station (1983) 76 Cr App R 234
Case Summaries
The Divisional Court upheld a conviction for being in an enclosed garden for an unlawful purpose. Deliberately frightening the occupier through her window supported the finding of an intended assault. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Entain plc (2023) — Deferred Prosecution Agreement
Case Summaries
The Crown Court approved Entain’s deferred prosecution agreement concerning alleged failures to prevent bribery, with £615 million in payments and continuing compliance obligations. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Dica [2004] EWCA Crim 1103
Case Summaries
R v Dica distinguished consent to intercourse from consent to the risk of HIV infection. The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and ordered a retrial. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v B [2013] EWCA Crim 3
Case Summaries
R v B [2013] EWCA Crim 3 explains mental illness, reasonable belief in sexual consent, and the different tests for assault and criminal damage. All conviction appeals were dismissed. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Ball v Johnson [2019] EW Misc 15 (MagC)
Case Summaries
The summons against Boris Johnson was subsequently quashed. This summary explains the original decision and why the High Court held that the alleged campaigning statements fell outside misconduct in public office. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Couzens (2021) — Sentencing
Case Summaries
Fulford LJ imposed a whole life order for Sarah Everard’s murder, emphasising Couzens’s use of police powers to facilitate the offences. Summary and sentencing remarks. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority [2012] UKSC 22
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held by five votes to two that a Swedish public prosecutor could issue a European Arrest Warrant as a judicial authority under the Extradition Act 2003. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
USA v Julian Assange [2021] EWHC 3313 (Admin)
Case Summaries
The High Court accepted US assurances about detention and treatment, overturned Julian Assange’s discharge and directed that his extradition case be sent to the Secretary of State. ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v ABJ; R v BDN [2026] UKSC 8
Case Summaries
Two protesters faced charges under section 12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000 for speeches allegedly supporting Hamas. The Supreme Court held the offence compatible with article 10. It set out the offence's seven ingredients and ruled that juries need not conduct a separate proportionality assessment. Background These conjoined appeals arose from preparatory hearings in two […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v McCafferty and others [2026] UKSC 20
Case Summaries
Animal Rebellion protesters blocked a private industrial-estate road outside Müller's dairy and were charged with statutory public nuisance under the obstruction limb only. The Supreme Court held that there is no public right over private ways. A mere licence is not a public ‘right’, so the defendants were acquitted. Background Section 78 of the Police, […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R (on the application of Quaye) v Secretary of State for Justice [2026] UKSC 34
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court dismissed Jesse Quaye’s appeal and held that legislation limiting minimum-term reviews of detention during His Majesty’s pleasure to offenders under 18 when sentenced is compatible with articles 5, 7 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Quaye committed murder at 17 but was sentenced at 18 to an indeterminate sentence […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Sheikh and others [2026] UKSC 28
Case Summaries
A jury convicted four household members of causing or allowing serious physical harm to Ambreen Sheikh. The prosecution could not prove who had administered the drug said to have caused her brain injury. The appeal concerned a different question: did an earlier episode of violence have to involve the same method of inflicting harm before […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R (on the application of Pearce and another) v Parole Board of England and Wales [2023] UKSC 13
Case Summaries
The Parole Board sometimes has to assess the risk of release when it cannot establish exactly what happened in the past. The Supreme Court held that an unresolved allegation can be relevant to that assessment. The Board must investigate where it reasonably can, distinguish established facts from uncertainty, and give the prisoner a fair opportunity […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Morgan and others v Ministry of Justice (Northern Ireland) [2023] UKSC 14
Case Summaries
The Supreme Court held that legislation delaying and conditioning the early release of prisoners already serving determinate sentences for terrorist offences in Northern Ireland did not breach article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The changes concerned the execution of the sentences imposed by the trial judge, rather than redefining or increasing those […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R (on the application of KBR, Inc) v Director of the Serious Fraud Office [2021] UKSC 2
Case Summaries
An officer of KBR, Inc travelled from the United States to meet the Serious Fraud Office in London. During the meeting she was handed a notice requiring the US company to produce records held abroad. The question was whether her presence in London brought the company within the reach of that statutory power. The notice […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Popoviciu v Curtea De Apel Bucharest (Romania) [2023] UKSC 39
Case Summaries
Romania sought Gabriel Popoviciu’s surrender to serve a sentence imposed after conviction. He alleged that his trial had been flagrantly unfair. The Supreme Court distinguished proof of something that had already happened from a prediction of what might happen on return. By the time it delivered its reasons, Romania had withdrawn the warrant. The conviction […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Zabolotnyi v The Mateszalka District Court, Hungary [2021] UKSC 14
Case Summaries
A person resisting extradition to Hungary relied on evidence that Hungarian prison assurances given to Germany had allegedly been broken. The appeal raised two separate questions. Could evidence about promises made to another state be considered? If so, was this evidence strong enough to change the extradition decision? The Mateszalka District Court, Hungary, sought the […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Director of Public Prosecutions v Ziegler and others [2021] UKSC 23
Case Summaries
Peaceful protesters deliberately obstructed one side of a road leading to an arms fair. In this prosecution under section 137 of the Highways Act 1980, did the deliberate nature of the obstruction by itself rule out a lawful excuse? The answer determined whether the trial judge had been entitled to acquit. The protest and the […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Her Majesty’s Attorney General v Crosland [2021] UKSC 15
Case Summaries
Judges sometimes circulate a draft decision to the parties before announcing it publicly. Timothy Crosland disclosed the outcome of the Heathrow appeal during that confidential period. The Supreme Court had to decide whether the deliberate disclosure was a contempt and what weight his stated public-interest motive should carry. The Attorney General asked for permission to […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
Attorney General v Crosland (appeal against contempt finding and orders) [2021] UKSC 58
Case Summaries
Can a litigant appeal from one Supreme Court panel to another? The question arose because the Court had itself tried Timothy Crosland for contempt after he disclosed an embargoed judgment. Four justices held that an appeal lay to a fresh panel. Every justice concluded that the challenge failed. Mr Crosland, an unregistered barrister, was a […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Copeland (AP) (Appellant) [2020] UKSC 8
Case Summaries
A man who made a small quantity of homemade explosive said that he did so only to experiment and to teach himself how explosives worked. The trial judge and the Court of Appeal ruled that this could not be a “lawful object” under section 4(1) of the Explosive Substances Act 1883, so a jury could […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
In the matter of an application by Deborah McGuinness for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2020] UKSC 6
Case Summaries
Michael Stone’s prison authorities treated the years he had spent on licence as counting towards the 30-year tariff of his life sentence. Deborah McGuinness, the sister of one of his victims, successfully challenged that calculation in the High Court, but the Supreme Court did not decide whether she was right. It held that the judicial […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
R v Hilton (Northern Ireland) [2020] UKSC 29
Case Summaries
After Bernadette Hilton was convicted of social security offences, a confiscation order was made for £10,263.50, the accepted value of her interest in a house owned jointly with a former partner. The Supreme Court held that the order remained valid even though neither the former partner nor the mortgagee had been given an opportunity to […] ...
Last modified: 4th Nov 2026
