Onus and Quantum of Proof for Breaching the Standard of Procedure during the Movement Control Order

The objective of this research paper is to highlight on the issues relating to the onus and quantum of proof for breaching the standard of procedure (SOP) during the movement control order (MCO) due to Pandemic Covid 19 in Malaysia. In tackling the issues, the research methodology applied by the author is by analysing and evaluating some decided cases, studying the substantive laws, regulations, and procedure in enforcing movement control order. The contemporary legal issues in this article are on whom the onus (burden) of proof lies and what is the quantum (standard) of proof required for the offence of breaching social distancing during the movement control order, be it conditional, restricted or recovery. The standard of procedure always changing based on the types of movement control order made by the Federal Government. In the New Straits Times dated 4 April 2021, it was reported that 17 publics were compounded for not practicing social distancing. Many questions raise as what is the real meaning of social distancing? In which type of offence, the social distancing offence lies on? What are the elements that will constitute the offence? As to the remedies, the author has submitted the nature of the offence for breaching the SOP during MCO. The expectation result of this paper is to give a clear picture as to the matter of standard of proof and burden of proof that to be considered by the trial court in deciding the issue of breaching SOP. The significance of this paper is to point out some contemporary identical legal issues relating to SOP during MCO. The issues will be highlighted in this article.

The Financial Crisis on Trial: What Went Wrong

Americans demanded retribution from the mortgage lenders whose subprime loans defaulted and from investment bankers whose mortgage-backed securities sharply declined in value in 2007, leading to financial panic and the Great Recession. From 2008 to 2019, the federal government extracted hundreds of billions in fines from dozens of corporations, but few individual business executives were held accountable, and no senior banker was convicted of a crime. I use the trial court record of five government enforcement cases against individuals to explain this apparently anomalous result. I conclude that, in addition to a lack of funding, the prosecution effort was hindered by the government’s erroneous selection of cases to pursue. Further, the diffused nature of decision making in the mortgage finance market made it difficult to prove that any one senior-level participant had the criminal intent necessary for a conviction or a Securities and Exchange Commission civil fine or injunction. The trial results also support the argument that the growth and consolidation of investment banks from 1990 to 2008 created incentives for misconduct within the firms.

Compensatory justice to the victim of a crime and judicial practices in India: An empirical study

The Constitution of India guarantees that justice shall be delivered to all. The duty to ensure that justice delivery is accessible to all is entrusted to state bodies. The legislature is expected to ensure that the legal framework is there, the executive is expected to ensure that all infrastructural needs of the justice delivery system are in place, and the judiciary is expected to ensure that justice is delivered in their area. This paper deals with the issue of delivery of victim justice, with a special focus on compensatory mechanisms laid down under the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973. The Code empowers the courts to award compensation to the victim of a crime to ensure his/her rehabilitation. In light of the observations made by the Supreme Court of India that the trial court judges do not exercise their discretionary power under the relevant statutory provisions to award compensation to the victims of a crime, this paper explores the extent of such failure and the reasons behind it.

Forensic analysis on printer inks via chemometrics

Printer inks are becoming necessary for utilization for wide range of purposes by society in current times with rapid development in technology and digital media area. Thus, forgery and counterfeiting becoming easier for the criminals. It is dangerous as some criminals will misused the technology by mean of addition and adulteration of parts of text or numbers on document as the inks and document can be made as an evidence in the trial court. Thus, the characterization and differentiation of the printed inks in the suspected documents (civil or criminal cases) may provide important information about the authenticity of the printer inks. The focus of this study to differentiate the chemical component of three different types of sample inks by incorporation of FTIR spectrophotometer with principal component analysis. The unique features of the ink samples were unmasked from the score plots of the principal component analysis. Thus, the graphical representation provided by the FTIR spectra with principal component analysis enabled the discrimination certain chemical in the printer inks.

ERRORS IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING: A CASE OF JESSICA KUMALAWONGSO’S COURT

This study aimed to analyze the main types of errors found in the consecutive interpreting (CI) in Jessica Kumalawongso’s trial court and to indicate its causes. The research method used is the descriptive qualitative method by means of the secondary data taken from Kompas TV, uploaded on YouTube in 2016 consisting of three videos of the justifications of Jessica's attorney, toxicologist and forensic pathologist before the interpreter in order to counter the public prosecutor in the courtroom. They were, then, classified into both the source and the target languages by analyzing their types of error leading to the finding of the main types and subtypes of errors. The result of this study is that based on Gonzales theory on the consecutive interpreting, 67 errors with six out of eight main types are found at the entire selected videos. The six main types of errors detected in the court proceedings are non-conservation of paralinguistic features, inadequate language proficiency, addition, omission, distortion and register conservation.

Sexual Violence against Women, the Laws, the Punishment, and Negotiating the Duplicity

On 16 December 2012, India erupted in national outrage against the rape of a 23-year-old female student in New Delhi, christened “Nirbhaya” (fearless). In the aftermath, there was a convergence of multiple discourses that framed post-independent India’s feminist consciousness. In 2020, four men convicted of Nirbhaya’s rape and murder were executed. An eight-year old girl in Kashmir was brutally raped and murdered in January 2018. The trial court sentenced the main accused to life in prison. In December 2019, four men held in yet another horrific rape and death of a 27-year veterinarian in Hyderabad were killed by the police in what has been called an extrajudicial killing. More recently, in 2020, a 19-year old was raped and killed in rural Uttar Pradesh. The victims came from different social locations, castes, tribes, and religious communities. This paper presents a feminist critique of the legal discourse on rape and the death penalty. It looks at an ironical cooptation of the critique of sexual violence by a patriarchal discourse on social injury and collective conscience. The paper examines how fleeting rage against the culprits and the call for death penalty immunizes larger misogynist cultural assumptions. This myopic rage is oblivious to sexual violence in women’s daily lives. Finally, the paper looks at why legal reforms triggered by brutal acts of sexual violence, receiving widespread media attention, fail to achieve systemic societal changes.

DEFENDANT’S CONFESSION AT THE MAIN HEARING IN CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE LAW: JUST ANOTHER PIECE OF EVIDENCE, GUILTY PLEA OR A TACIT AGREEMENT?

The effects of a defendant’s confession are not the same in all legal orders. In civil law systems, confession is usually perceived as an ordinary piece of evidence, while in common law culture it is considered a guilty plea whose truthfulness is not to be questioned by the judge. However, this broad differentiation is not straightforward. In Croatia, if a defendant confesses to a criminal offence punishable by a fine or imprisonment of up to five years at the main hearing and agrees to the sentence proposed by the prosecutor, the trial court is not allowed to impose a sentence higher than the one proposed by the prosecutor. This can motivate tacit agreements and unregulated negotiations between the parties after the main hearing has already begun, and it is unclear if the legislator had such a scenario in mind when enacting this provision. In order to elucidate these problems in a broader perspective, the authors have analysed Croatian, German, Austrian, French, Italian and English law, with an emphasis on the position of the defendant after a confession at the main hearing, the effects of the confession, the role of the court in further proceedings and the victim’s rights. After the comparative analysis, the authors presented their opinion on the current legal situation in Croatia, especially Art. 417a (6) and (7) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, together with a proposal for legislative changes.

Designing and implementing e-justice systems: an information systems approach to regional trial court case docket management in northern Mindanao, Philippines

Computer-based information systems for case management are still at an early stage of adoption in many trial courts in the Philippines. In most cases, information system implemented is the case docket using the official record book on which cases are written and inventory of cases and reports are generated. This is a standalone system that often face data processing, data security and case management challenges. However, there are examples of Information systems in overcoming these pitfalls and producing innovative solutions that surpass data management practices in in many trial courts in the country. One such case is the Regional Trial Court Branch 23 of Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao, Philippines. A project named Web-based Case Docket Information System (WCDIS) has been designed and developed for the court branch. This system uses a framework known as System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) which is a guide for the design and development. This paper also discusses the key system functionalities and the implementation methodology, including both the benefits and shortcomings of this approach, with the goal of applying lessons learned for future installations. Foremost among the successes of this project is its ability to increase efficiency and reliability in completing court transactions.