Agreed @MikeCarlton01. A well articulated take. I’ve read the decision, and I simply cannot abide it. As a criminal lawyer, fresh as I may be to the fold, it doesn’t take a genius to understand the consequence of the Court’s position.

Thread >>> https://twitter.com/mikecarlton01/status/1248015754730934272

The Court’s presupposition of how the jury did or did not come to find doubt and the weight thus given to it stands contrary to the basic fundamental purpose of a jury.

It’s been long accepted that if a jury’s decision was so ‘farfetched and fanciful’ that no reasonable person could come to it - then and only then should the Court overrule.

This decision has effectively said that courts are free to overrule a jury in any such case where there exists some notion of doubt which a judge effectively thinks themselves better to understand than a jury of citizens.

Sure, this can theoretically be a good thing if you have a populous of bigoted idiotic people where miscarriages of justice are the rule rather than the exception. Though some people may disagree, I think Australians should be he held in higher regard.

It’s evident in the Court’s decision that they believe certain of the fundamental legal principles that constitute our rule of law as superior to others.

But what they mistake about our rule of law, and I say ‘our rule of law’ because Australia is nation with its own unique legal identity, is that it’s built of more than just legal principles found bound in centuries old books.

Above all else, our rule of law is made of trust, truth, justice, integrity, equality, and democracy. Apply whatever principle or precedent you want, but without these things the very foundations of our justice system can be called into question.

The Court has dissipated one of the most fundamental principles of Western jurisprudence - equality before the law. They have placed themselves atop an ivory tower and shouted down to us all that we know nothing.

In doing so, they have extricated one of the most important processes that assist in the evolution of our rule of law. The jury is essential in applying modern and current social moral codes (something our system of law is slow to do as it evolves).

Of course, we should be proud of our legal system. But we can’t be complacent. I fear that our Court’s become such that to the everyday person they only represent ‘the elite.’

As a generalisation, the judges in our higher courts are old, Oxford educated, white, male, rich, metropolitan, and connected societally or politically.

The legal system needs more representation, not less. Not only through juries, but on the bench and at the Bar. Costs need to be reigned in and access made easier for those that need it. Financial investment needs to be made into systemic improvements.

Pomp and tradition should be done away with in favour of professionalism and humanism. Precedent must be interpreted in such a way that it relates to who we are as a people now, not who we were then.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in a strong judiciary, one that arguably sits at the apex of our separation of powers. But an all powerful judiciary stands hollow if it doesn’t find its power, above all else, in our people and our rule of law.

I had to fight to get to where I am. I never had money. Or private schools. Or tutors. I’ve lived assault. And addiction. And lots of mistakes. But I fought, and 10 years and 3 degrees later (all while working to survive), I’m preparing to sit the Bar.

I was made to relive my mistakes of a decade past when applying for admission as a lawyer. Every little detail. Even the attempt on my life that I’d made a year earlier when I started to come to terms with past trauma.

I was obliged to tell them everything, so that they could decide whether I was ‘fit and proper.’ I waited 3 months with no word, wondering if it was for nothing, and what I’d do if I wasn’t admitted. When I finally got the email, I was relieved. But I was also angry as hell.

It’s an anger that’s growing as I see so many people forgotten, chewed up and spat out. Money. Money. Money. And of course, power. So mark my words, if I’m ever in a position where the justice I serve can value an individual over an institution, I’ll bloody do it.

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