A Study of Court Procedures in Australia During Criminal Trials

CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note Executive Summary The intention of the assignment is to analyze court procedures in Australia during criminal trials. Therefore the report is commissioned to examine the determinations made by the court when delivering a particular judgment with special attention to the rule of law as laid down by Dicey. In criminal trails the case is between an accused person and the state and the judge must decide

Running head: CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE
CRIMINOLOGY & CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The intention of the assignment is to analyze court procedures in Australia during criminal trials.
The assignment intends to highlight the various theories of justice that are applied when deciding
a particular dispute. Therefore the report is commissioned to examine the determinations made
by the court when delivering a particular judgment with special attention to the rule of law as
laid down by Dicey. The conclusion of this report is that the rule of law as defined by Dicey is
still in place.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Parramatta Local Court....................................................................................................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference List..................................................................................................................................7
Restorative justice and deterring crime.......................................................................................7
Are restorative justice conferences more fair than criminal courts? Comparing levels of
observed procedural justice in the reintegrative shaming experiments (RISE)...........................7
Shattering the myth of legality: The impact of the media's framing of Supreme Court
procedures on perceptions of fairness..........................................................................................8
Young driver perceptions of police traffic enforcement and self-reported driving offences......8
Zero tolerance'drug driving laws in Australia: A gap between rationale and form?...................9
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The judicial wing of the government is tasked with interpreting the laws enacted by the
legislature. The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (cth) provides for such a
separation of powers and in doing so creates a system where the powers of the legislative wing
of the government are under judicial review and scrutiny. This ensures that arbitrary and
discretionary laws are not enacted within the jurisdiction of the Australian commonwealth. Thus
judges are appointed by due process of law to preside over disputes. Legal disputes can be
broadly classified into categories- Civil and Criminal. In a civil dispute the issue is between two
parties and the judge must determine the rights of both parties. In criminal trails the case is
between an accused person and the state and the judge must decide the innocence or guilt of the
accused.
Parramatta Local Court
I arrived at the Parramatta Local Court in Sydney, NSW at 10 a.m. when the court began
its proceedings. The ambiance of the Courtroom was an ardent reminder regal stature of the legal
profession. The halls echoed with the voice of justice and demonstrated the practicality of the
concept of equality before law. It truly emanated an aura that gave the impression that if a person
had a legally valid right these halls would deliver a remedy for the same. The court proceeding I
decided to document was taken up at 10:50 a.m. The court clerk called for the matter and the
same was taken up accordingly by the court. The magistrate presiding over this case was
Magistrate Shields. The matter in question was a case of traffic violations by Ms. Mary Saliba.
The case of Ms. Saliba was that she was driving with a suspended license. Her license was

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suspended till Jan 2019 and yet she was found operating a vehicle. She was represented by a
counsel. However, due to her counsel not being well-versed will all the facts surrounding the
accused before the violation and as a result false statements were entered into evidence.
The accused was a single mother of three children who had disabilities. She thus had
difficulties and transporting them which was the crux of her plea before the court. However, as
these had not been pleaded in the past the Magistrate had to allow proceedings against her. This
clearly shows the magistrate’s adherence to equality before law. The magistrate further
questioned the accused if she was aware that driving with a suspended license could attract
criminal liabilities and was against the law and she answered in the affirmative to this. Ms.
Saliba was also operating an unregistered vehicle and was a repeated offender and the magistrate
was made aware of these facts by the prosecution. Traffic violations are criminal offences and
are thus acts against the state. In an action where the state is a party it must be taken to trial
because it means the social/legal conformity of the accused required to be assessed and thus a
court procedure was the only appropriate proceeding for such an issue.
The prosecutor then made the court aware of the fact that as a repeated offender she was
liable to face imprisonment and a major monetary fine. However the defense objected and the
judge agreed that due to the ambiguity in the evidence (because of missing). The police while
entering evidence also stated the circumstances of the case in an unbiased manner from the
perspective of a third person before apprehension of the accused. Thus, all sides involved in
arguing and adjudicating the matter observed their duties with utmost strictness. Further from the
interaction between the accused and the magistrate it can be observed that Ms. Saliba was
completely aware of the proceedings that were occurring in court. The prosecutor also made it
evident that Ms. Saliba was current part of a traffic offender program aimed at helping traffic

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offenders reintegrate themselves into society as responsible drivers. The fact that she was
accused of a repeated offence despite such a program makes it clear that she required harsher
imposition from the court and the magistrate duly observed the same. The magistrate held that
conviction could be disqualified for another 12 months on the condition that any repeated
offence would lead to imprisonment. The accused further wrote a letter of remorse which was
submitted by her counsel to the court.
Thus we see a strong conformity with Dicey’s recommendations relating to the rule of
law. The first recommendation states that the law should apply to everyone without exception
and we see here that despite the accused having valid unavoidable reasons to make such a
violation she would still be treated as an accused. The second recommendation states that there
should not be a provision for punishment unless a specific breach of legal provisions is
established. In this case the accused has violated the law relating to driving without a valid
license and thus would be subject to punishment. From the observations of the magistrate it is
amply clear that if a specific provision of law had not been contravened the accused would not
be subject to any form of punishment. Dicey’s third recommendation states that the judgments
delivered by the court would not be influenced by political factors prevalent in the present
scenario. Here, the decision of the magistrate was based on a specific contravention of law which
was established though evidence. The prosecution and the defense based their arguments solely
based on the facts and legal provisions surrounding the offence the final decision was based on
the same. Thus, there was no political influence involved in the decision of the court and the
judgment delivered observed the theories of justice and fairness completely. Thus Dicey’s
theories on the rule of law stand today as it did when they were coined. The rule of law is the
supreme norm that courts must adhere to and the same is in practice even today.

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Conclusion
Thus Dicey’s recommended considerations for the rule of law, which ensures equality
before the law, are still adhered to in legal systems today. The rule of law states that there should
be equality before the law, no one should be punished unless there is a specific breach of
provisions of law and the judgments delivered by the courts should not be influenced by political
factors. Thus in Ms. Mary Saliba’s case we see the same principles were followed by the
magistrate.

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Reference List
Sherman, L. W., & Strang, H. (1997).
Restorative justice and deterring crime.
It has been indicated through the Canberra Shaming experiments that criminal offenders refrain
and are deterred from committing offenses after having gone through and experienced restorative
justice approach after court proceedings. It has been assessed that drunk drivers predict the
consequences of drunk driving to be dire after they have been caught offending once especially
due to their families. The preliminary findings of the Canberra Police conferencing program and
the ANU researchers are important to be taken in to consideration to assess the effect of shaming
conferences, as critics have criticized have opined shaming conferences as a soft option.
Barnes, G. C., Hyatt, J. M., Angel, C. M., Strang, H., & Sherman, L. W. (2015).
Are restorative justice conferences more fair than criminal courts? Comparing
levels of observed procedural justice in the reintegrative shaming experiments
(RISE).
It can be mentioned that criminal justice sanctions are considered to most effective as they are
perceived to provide encouragement to the offenders to form moral ties with their repective
communities and promote their beliefs concerning the fairness of the legislation and the power of
the legal authorities. In accordance with the Procedural justice theory it can be stated that the
goals of restorative justice conferences are to provide fair treatment to the offenders and allow
such offenders to increase their respect for the law. Restorative justice systems also aim to make
the offenders voluntarily conduct themselves in law abiding manner. Restorative and Procedural

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justice can be described as a process where those who have been affected by wrong doing
incidents come together to express and communicate their feelings and provide description of
how they had been affected.
Baird, V.A. and Gangl, A., 2006
Shattering the myth of legality: The impact of the media's framing of Supreme
Court procedures on perceptions of fairness.
Laws can be classified into two broad categories- Substantive law and procedural law.
Substantive law defines the provisions of law which regulate and govern the legal standpoint in
those issues. The substantive law of the land deals with what the law says and what is legal and
what is illegal. Procedural law on the other hand defines the procedure through which legal
actions are initiated and adjudicated upon. Thus, procedural laws ensure that the legal disputes
brought before a court are disposed off in an uniform way which is defined by procedures.
Procedure of law and due process of law are both extensively dependent on the procedures
governing a particular dispute.
Bates, L. J., Scott-Parker, B., Allen, S., & Watson, B. (2016).
Young driver perceptions of police traffic enforcement and self-reported driving
offences.
Road policing can be considered to be a key method which can be used to improve the
compliance of drivers with the traffic laws. It can be mentioned that a significant number of
injuries and deaths are caused by road accidents. It has been assessed in this research that the
percentage of road accidents caused by young drivers is significantly higher than drivers of older
age groups. However, Graduated Drivers Licensing have been able to successfully implement a

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public health approach to reducing the number of accident caused by young drivers after they
start driving by themselves.
Quilter, J., & McNamara, L. J. (2017).
Zero tolerance'drug driving laws in Australia: A gap between rationale and form?.
Legislation in all the states of Australia creates offenses and makes provisions for providing
roadside testing for drug driving. While random breath analyzer test aims to test whether drivers
are under the influence of alcohol while driving, random drug tests typically aims to detect the
presence of the three most widely used drugs in Australia which are Cannabis, methamphetamine
and ecstasy in the oral fluids of the driver. This article emphasizes on the need and importance
of bringing back drug driving laws in addition to the drunk driving laws in all the states of
Australia.

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Bibliography
Mills, B. 2011. The criminal trial. Sydney: Federation Press.
Sherman, L.W. and Strang, H., 1997. Restorative justice and deterring crime.
Barnes, G.C., Hyatt, J.M., Angel, C.M., Strang, H. and Sherman, L.W., 2015. Are restorative
justice conferences more fair than criminal courts? Comparing levels of observed procedural
justice in the reintegrative shaming experiments (RISE). Criminal Justice Policy Review, 26(2),
pp.103-130.
Bates, L.J., Scott-Parker, B., Allen, S. and Watson, B., 2016. Young driver perceptions of police
traffic enforcement and self-reported driving offences. Policing: An International Journal of
Police Strategies & Management, 39(4), pp.723-739.
Quilter, J. and McNamara, L.J., 2017. 'Zero tolerance'drug driving laws in Australia: A gap
between rationale and form?.