AIC Conference Proceedings

No. 7: The future of committals : proceedings of a conference held 1-2 May 1990

Julia Vernon (ed)
ISBN 0 642 16345 6 ; ISSN 1034-5086
Canberra : Australian Institute of Criminology, 1991

Abstract

Legislative initiatives to change the committal process are being considered by several Australian states. The papers at this conference summarise the debate surrounding committal hearings, presenting a number of different viewpoints. The papers consider whether committal hearings should be abolished and whether they take up too much court time, exacerbating delays in the criminal justice system. Some papers also examine whether committal hearings provide an effective mechanism for the early identification of guilty pleas and for filtering out weak cases.

Contents

• Committals again under the microscope
  Peter A Sallmann
• Evaluating the committal
  David Brereton and John Willis
• The future of committal proceedings in New South Wales
  Peter Berman
• The case for the retention of committals in their present form is overwhelming
  John Marsden
• A critique of proposed committal reform in New South Wales
  Clarrie Briese
• Committal proceedings : the Victorian perspective
  John Coldrey
• The future of committals
  Bryan J Clothier
• Moves in the Australian Capital Territory
  Ron Cahill and Mark O'Neill
• Disclosure of the prosecution case before trial
  Ben Salmon
• Committal proceedings in the Australian Capital Territory
  Terry Higgins
• A case for abolition
  John Johnson
• Committal for trial and pre-trial disclosure : some overseas perspectives
  Bron McKillop
• The future of committals - a defence lawyer's perspective
  Terry O'Gorman
• A Tasmanian defence lawyer's perspective
  Alan Blow
• The future of committal hearings - the victim/witness point of view
  Andrew Paterson
• A prosecution perspective
  Mark Weinberg
• Committals - time for change
  John Murray
• Committals in Victoria - a police perspective
  Kerry Stephens
• Publicity and committals
  Jack Waterford
• Judicial review of committal proceedings for federal offences
  Bronwyn Naylor
• Legal aid and committals
  Mick O'Brien
• Committals, offence classification and the jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court
  Matthew Goode