Should a disclosure obligation be imposed upon defence?
The financial cost to the community of administering the criminal justice system is substantial. While the public has an interest in ensuring that the proceedings are fair to an accused, it is also concerned that proceedings be efficient and provide the jury with the best possible assistance. The United Kingdom has introduced a disclosure regime as has Victoria (summaries of those regimes from the NSW Law Reform Commission’s Discussion Paper 41 on the right to silence are attached). As Doyle CJ pointed out in R v Ling (1996) 90 A CRIM R 376 at p.382; “It may be that the time has come for some limits to be placed upon the right of silence and for some obligation to be imposed upon the defence to join in the identification of and limiting of issues in criminal proceedings to an extent inconsistent with the maintenance of the right of silence. It is well known that criminal courts in Australia and in other countries are struggling to cope with the volume of work coming before them. It is
