Welcome to the Alternative Trial Processes Online Consultation
The Law Commission has sought your views on how criminal trials are conducted and whether there may be better ways to serve the interests of justice – particularly in cases involving sexual offending.
This consultation came after the Government asked the Law Commission to conduct a high-level review of trial and pre-trial processes with a view to improving the system’s fairness, efficiency and effectiveness. The Commission presented these high-level ideas about criminal trials and resolution of sexual offending cases to promote public debate and feedback.
The online consultation was in a new consultation format. The issues were broken into shorter and more accessible segments outlining the problems and seeking feedback on a series of possible reforms.
Submissions to the Commission’s online consultation closed on 27 April 2012. Many thanks to those who have made submissions on the matters raised in our issues paper. We have received over 500 submissions and these are presently being analysed. Once completed, a summary of the submissions will be posted on our website. The next stage of the project will proceed as Commission resources allow.
Alternative Trial Processes project page
Press release and media backgrounder
How to use this consultation
Use the left hand navigation bar to click on section headings to view the contents of each section.
Within each page use the orange links at the top to navigate within the page. Links to external material will open in a new window. You will need Adobe reader to view many of the links. Get Adobe reader here.
Links include extracts from Elisabeth McDonald and Yvette Tinsley's book 'From "Real Rape" to Real Justice: Prosecuting Rape in New Zealand'. The extracts are listed here.
You can print the pages by clicking on the 'Print-Friendly Version' link at the bottom of each page.
Image on home page supplied by the Ministry of Justice - Crown Copyright