Brief summary

Through the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), defendants have become so marginal in their own criminal trials that it calls into question the state’s compliance with Article 6 of the ECHR.

How and why did you pick this topic?

This past year I have been reading Tristan Kirk’s articles in The Standard in which he tells the stories of people convicted through the SJP. Our criminal justice system is drastically under-resourced and overstretched, so ways to make efficiency savings are very attractive to lawmakers. But the SJP does this by cutting protections for defendants. I wanted to find a way to keep these savings that would not disadvantage the accused.    

The full essay is reproduced below.