HSC Legal Studies Question Thread

[paigek3]

Police discretion: misuse of police powers under LEPRA, evident in the Roberto Curti taser incident, as well as Corey Barker's unlawful arrest. You can substantiate the paragraph with the subsequent media blacklash. This mainly shows how police discretion is being exploited and is not delivering justice for the accused. You can show nuance through R v Gittany, where police discretion was used to gather evidence efficiently and gain a conviction

Judicial discretion in factors affecting a sentence: the role of discretion here is to provide judges with a means of adapting to the unique features of each case. In the case of R v Milat and Klein, the judge disregarded their mitigating factors as the offence was too severe. Whereas, in R v Bayley the offender DID consider these mitigating factors, resulting in a lesser sentence. This effectively allowed the judge to prioritise rehabilitation

Judicial discretion in penalties: R v GDP, sentence is changed from a 12 month control order to a 12 month probation to encourage rehab. R v McCartney, judge prioritises deterrence, so imposes a higher sentence for sexual assault

Mandatory sentences: The introduction of recent mandatory sentences has hindered the role of judicial discretion. Crimes (Murder of Police Officer) Act enforced a mandatory life sentence for killing a police officer. This means that discretion can no longer be applied as each convicted offender will always be given a life sentence, regardless of any mitigating factors.

For an essay on the role of discretion in the cjs, the easiest way and most effective way to go in terms of getting a broad discussion would be to have a paragraph on the CIP, CTP and S&P.
And then within each paragraph, for example the CIP you could talk about points such as:
- police powers (their application of discretion)
- reporting of crime --> main role in this is that of the public, whose only 'power' is discretion (choosing whether or not to report a crime). This becomes an issue though with under-reporting on certain types of crimes (sexual assault, domestic violence) because of assumptions that reporting won't lead to arrest/conviction (NSW Bureau of Crime Stats and Research [2006] - 90% of reported sexual assaults resulted in no conviction) and so up to 85% of sexual assaults in Australia are not reported. Organisations such as Crime Stoppers however encourage public reporting of crime ... so I suppose you could find some stats on the reporting of crime through that method as a way of fixing the ineffectiveness of the role of discretion in reporting of crime.
- gathering evidence --> essentially all up to the police and their use of their powers, so discretion inevitable becomes a factor (whether it is effective or ineffective). So for this section you could talk about R v Wood (demonstrated ineffective use of police discretion in gathering evidence, leading to unfair trial)
- use of technology --> again, major involvement of police and their use of their powers. So one interesting thing I came across was police hacking powers (provided through their capability for covert searches). This type of power is obviously super controversial because it impedges on key human rights such as the right to privacy etc. Thus police discretion is super important -- but it's limited by the fact that only a specific officer can get a warrant from a specific eligible judge for this power, and even with that their application needs to demonstrate suspicion or belief on reasonable grounds that a terrorist act has been/is likely to be commited, that searching a premises (or whatever else) will likely prevent this and that it's necessary that the search has to be conducted without the occupier's knowledge. Also, after 10 days of the search the office has to report back to the judge and essentially detail EVERYTHING. So its good that certain meausures have been put in place for powers like this where discretion is obviously going to affect how the power will be used (usually a bad effect), and so discretion is limited for effectiveness.
- use of warrants: as mentioned above, limit police discretion but result in judicial discretion
- DVEC (used in domestic violence investigations) --> limits the discretion of victims/witnesses as police can digitally record victims statement in situ so that justice can be achieved in the trial wherein the victim may not be willing to provide correct information.
- bail: judicial discretion, but the reforms in Bail Act limit judicial discretion (I may be wrong, you might have to check over this). Restrictions have also been placed in granting bail for offences such as drug trafficking/domestic violence and even limit the chance of suspected terrorists of getting bail (Terrorism Act amendment 2017).

So these are some things specific for the CIP, but you would continue for the other sections of the CJS, according to the syllabus (because it honestly makes it so much easier to just pack in information into your paragraphs imo).
Hope this helps
(also sorry if I've just repeated what other people have already posted, this took forever to write up )

I had a discretion question in my trials but it was focused on sentencing and punishment. I wrote about how a judge's discretion ultimately results in whether or not the accused is convicted. I narrowed it down to statutory and judicial guidelines (mandatory sentencing REMOVES the ability of a judge to have discretion while precedents indicates what the recommended sentence would be and lets the judge mold their decisions based on the past decisions), types of penalties (the judge chooses the penalty based on aggravating and mitigating factors) and victim impact statements (judges are only obliged to consider them and it should not form a bias).

For other parts that are not pertaining to sentencing and punishment, I guess you could talk about police discretion; how they can choose to give a warning, etc. Would appreciate if others could add onto this!

Thank you so much everyone! Legends <3

[Korrasami]

Hey guys, if you forget the exact title of a media article, would it be okay to paraphrase it?

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey guys, if you forget the exact title of a media article, would it be okay to paraphrase it?

Yep, that is definitely okay to do if you need to

[phebsh]

i'm kinda thinking the same way!! 
maybe just brush up on all your legislation, cases, media articles, treaties etc. so that you know them really well!!
all the very best for tomorrow!
who else's last exam is legal and CAN NOT wait!? 

It's mine too!!!!!! I'm so exciteddddddd

[~BK~]

It's mine too!!!!!! I'm so exciteddddddd

awwwwwwwwesome...
i just can't wait for tomorrow at 12.30!!! 
the wait is especially painful when a large majority of my friends have already finished

[~BK~]

hey...
i was just wondering... how important is the year on the end of legislation?!
obviously for the main ones i remember them, but for some of the more insignificant ones i always tend to forget!! 
how much will i be marked down for this?!

[ruponti.atiq]

what recent law reform could you write about ?

[~BK~]

what recent law reform could you write about ?

what topic are you referring to?!

[annajpeterson]

For the question, 'discuss the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses regarding the recognition of same-sex relationships,' what would be the best way to structure the essay?

[caitlinlddouglas]

awwwwwwwwesome...
i just can't wait for tomorrow at 12.30!!! 
the wait is especially painful when a large majority of my friends have already finished

Still got extension maths the day after 🙁

[jamonwindeyer]

hey...
i was just wondering... how important is the year on the end of legislation?!
obviously for the main ones i remember them, but for some of the more insignificant ones i always tend to forget!! 
how much will i be marked down for this?!

It could contribute to the loss of a mark, but if you write an otherwise perfect essay then you'd still get 25/25 without dates on a few pieces of legislation

For the question, 'discuss the effectiveness of legal and non-legal responses regarding the recognition of same-sex relationships,' what would be the best way to structure the essay?

I personally structured it as:

- Effectiveness/ineffectiveness in the decriminalisation of homosexuality
- Effectiveness/ineffectiveness in de-facto recognition
- Effectiveness/ineffectiveness in marriage equality

With all the responses I want to include threaded throughout

[~BK~]

Still got extension maths the day after 🙁

i'm sorry to hear that... buuut, you'll get to celebrate soon anyways!!
well done for doing extension!!

It could contribute to the loss of a mark, but if you write an otherwise perfect essay then you'd still get 25/25 without dates on a few pieces of legislation

ok, i'll do my best to remember, there's just so much to try and think about!!
thanks for the response!!

[katie,rinos]

what recent law reform could you write about ?

Hey,
If it is crime you can talk about:
- Anti-Terror Act 2005 (held for 14 days without a charge, recently amended so children as young as 10 can be held without a charge).
- Lockout laws following R v. Loveridge case (2013). This also led to minimum and maximum mandatory sentencing with The Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Assault and Intoxication) Act 2014 NSW
- Right to silence laws: The Evidence Amendment (Evidence of Silence) Bill 2013 (unfavourable inference drawn against those who don't cooperate with police or tell everything they know about a crime in the interrogation process).
- Revenge porn laws: Crimes Amendment (Intimate Images) Bill 2017
- Changes to bail laws: Bail Act 2013 (removes presumption against bail, has a risk assessment).
- Consorting laws: Crimes Amendment (consorting and organised crime) Act 2012 (NSW)
- Provocation defences: Provocation (Amendment) Act 2014, R v Singh case and the gay panic defence.
Hope this helps! Good luck for tomorrow! 

[Korrasami]

Yep, that is definitely okay to do if you need to

Thank you so much!

[caitlinlddouglas]

Hey I was wondering how I could structure a response for changing nature of parental responsibility? It seems so broad!! Thanks heaps:)