The Reasonable Person for Our Time for Reasonableness in a Heterogeneous Society

  • Ceilia divakaran Charles Darwin University

Abstract

The cases of Bugmy and Munda decided by the High Court in 2013 raised the impact of social deprivation on Aboriginal defendants, in that it mars the development of an individual exposed to alcohol and alcohol-fuelled violence, and that full weight must be given to this in sentencing considerations. This significant legal precedent, in the backdrop of Aboriginal over-representation in the criminal justice system, invites the question of the relevance of the characterisation of the reasonable man in the law of provocation and delivery of equal justice, in a culturally heterogeneous society such as Australia. The case for constructing a contemporary reasonable man, clothed in Aboriginal identity, for equitable sentencing outcomes for Aboriginal defendants is explored.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

BOOK

Smith, J. and B. Hogan. Criminal Law. London: Butterworths. 1996

JOURNAL

Anthony, Thalia, Lorana Bartells and Anthony Hopkins. “Lessons Lost in Sen- tencing: Welding Individualised Justice to Indigenous Justice.” Melbourne University Law Review 16 (2015).http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ MelbULawRw/2015/16.html

Applegarth, P D T. “Lord Aitkin: Principle and Progress”. The Australian Law Journal 90 No. 10 (2016) http://sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/files/2016/10/ ALJ-Vol-90-No-10-Contents-final.pdf

Burke, Alafair S. “Rational Actors, Self Defense and Duress: Making Sense Not Syndromes Out of the Battered Woman”. North Carolina Law Review 81 (2002): 211-316.http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/165

Christie, Sarah.“Provocation-pushingthe Reasonable Man Too Far?”, Journalof Criminal Law 64, no. 4 (2000): 409-415, https://doi.org/10.1177/002201830006400410.

Chroust, Anton- Hermann and David L Osborn. “Aristotle’s Conception of Justice.”Notre Dame Law Review 17, No. 2 (1942): 129-143. http://scholarship. law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol17/iss2/2

Edney, Richard. “The Retreat From Fernando and the Erasure of Indigenous Identity in Sentencing,” Indigenous Law Bulletin 6 No.17 (2006): 8. http://www.austlii. edu.au/au/journals/IndigLawB/2006/11.html

Gardner, John. “The Mysterious Case of the reasonable person.” University of Toronto Law journal 51, (2001): 273-308. https://ssrn.com/abstract=1397115

Israel, Mark. “Ethnic Bias in Jury Selection in Australia and New Zealand.” International Journal of the Sociology of Law 26, no. 1 (1998): 35-54. https://doi.org/10.1006/ ijsl.1998.0057

Nourse, Victoria. “After the Reasonable Man: Getting over the Subjectivity/Objec- tivity Question.” New Criminal Law Review: In International and Interdisciplinary journal 11, no. 1 (2008): 33-50. http://doi.org/10.1525/nclr.2008.11.1.33

Riley, Trevor. “Aborigines and the Court: The Northern Territory Experience.” Northern Territory Law Journal 2, No. 4 (2012): 215-226.http://sites.thomsonreuters. com.au/journals/files/2012/09/Nthn-Territory-Law-Jnl-Vol-2-No-4-Sep- 2012.pdf

“Taking Indigenous Over-Imprisonment Seriously: Time For Concrete Solutions Not More Good Intentions”.Editorial.Criminal Law Journal 39 No.5 (2015). http:// sites.thomsonreuters.com.au/journals/files/2015/10/Crim-LJ-Vol-39-No-5- Contents.pdf

LEGAL DOCUMENT

Autralian Criminal Code

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

United Kingdom Homicide Act 1957

OTHER DOCUMENT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Reports.Bringing Them Home Report on Stolen Generations.May 1997

Australian Law Reform Commission Report on Aboriginal Customary Law Report 31.https://www.alrc.gov.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/publications/ALRC31.pdf

Charles, Christopher. The Law of Sentencing Applied to Aboriginal People In South Australia. http://aija.org.au/Ind%20Courts%20Conf%2013/Papers/Charles.pdf.

Doussa J, Von. Launch of the Supreme Court Equal Treatment Benchbook. Speech delivered at Banco Court Supreme Court of Queensland on 15 February 2006. https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/speeches/launch-supreme-court- equal-treatment-benchbook

Martin AC, Wayne. Access to Justice in Multicultural Australia. Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity, Cultural Diversity and Law Conference on 13 March 2015. http://www.supremecourt.wa.gov.au/_files/Speeches_Cultural%20Di- versity%20and%20the%20Law%20Conference%20-%20Access%20to%20Jus- tice%20in%20Multural%20Australia%20by%20the%20Hon%20Wayne%20 Martin%20AC,%20Chief%20Justice%20of%20Western%20Australia.pdf.

Multiculturalism and the Law, Australian Law Reform Commission ALRC 1992 No. 57.http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/lawreform/ALRC/1992/57.html#8>

Norris QC, Stephen. Sentencing Aboriginal Offenders –Not enough ‘judicial notice’?.
Judicial Conference of Australia Colloquium in Sydney on 13 October 2013.

Rothman AM, Stephen. The Impact of Bugmy and Munda on Sentencing Aboriginal and Other Offenders. Paper delivered at the NgaraYura Committee Twilight Seminar on 25 February 2014, .

Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody National Report.May 1991. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/#national

CASE LAW

Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37

davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham Urban district Council [1956] AC 696.

donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562

Fernando (1992) 76 A Crim R 50

Hall v. Brooklands Auto-Racing Club (1933) 1 KB 205

Healthcare at Home Limited v The Common Services Agency (Scotland) [2014] WLR(d) 351
Houghagen v Charra (1989) 50 SASR 419

Kable v dpp (1995) 38 NSWLR 374

Leech v peters (1988) 40 A Crim R 350

Lindsay v The Queen [2015] HCA 16

Masciantonio v R [1991] HCA 22

Munda v Western Australia [2013] HCA 38

Neal v The Queen 149 CLR 305 at 326

New South Wales v Hill (No 5)[2013] NSWSC 140

people v Goetz 497 N.e.2d 41 N.Y. 1986

R v Anunga(1976) 11 ALR 412

R v Ceissman(2001) NSWCCA 73

R v Clarke [2013] NSWCCA 260

R v Fernando (1992) 76 Australian Criminal Reports 58

R v Gj (2005) 16 NTLR 230 at 30 R v Gladue[1999]1 SCR 688

R v Grose (2014) 114 SASR 92

R v Ipeelee[2012] 1 SCR 433

R v pitt( 2001) NSWCCA 156

R v Hughes; R v Rigney-Brown [2016] SASCFC 126 (2 december2016)

Regina (director of public prosecutions) v Camplin[1978] 2 All eR 168

Reg. v. Hill (1986) 1 SCR 313

Regina v Smith (Morgan james) HL 27 jul 2000

State v Norman 378 S.e.2d 8, 10 N.C. 1989

Stingle v R [1990] HCA 61

Wong v The Queen [2001] HCA 64

WEBSITE CONTENT/INTERNET

Australian Institute of Criminology. ”Indigenous Justice in Focus, Australian Institute of Criminology 5 May 2015.” http://www.aic.gov.au/crime_types/ in_focus/indigenousjustice.html

Dowdell, Andrew. “Supreme Court Chief Justice Chris Kourakis Hits Out At South Australian Indigenous Toll”. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south- australia/supreme-court-chief-justice-chris-kourakis-hits-out-at-south-aus- tralia-indigneous-jail-toll/news-story/7c47494e368a5f7d526c60eb5175dd97

French AC, Robert. “Equal Justice and Cultural Diversity: the General Meets the Particular”. http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/ current-justices/frenchcj/frenchcj14mar15.pdf

Moran, Mayo. “Rethinking the Reasonable Person-An Egalitarian Reconstruction of the Objective Standard”.http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/ acprof:oso/9780199247820.001.0001/acprof-9780199247820

“Summary of R v Gladue by the SCC in the Ipeelee Case”.http://www.gladueprinciples. ca/downloads/ipeelee-gladue-summary.pdf
Published
2017-07-31
How to Cite
DIVAKARAN, Ceilia. The Reasonable Person for Our Time for Reasonableness in a Heterogeneous Society. Udayana Journal of Law and Culture, [S.l.], v. 1, n. 2, p. 71-97, july 2017. ISSN 2549-0680. Available at: <https://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/ujlc/article/view/32151>. Date accessed: 21 nov. 2024. doi: https://doi.org/10.24843/UJLC.2017.v01.i02.p01.