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An Inconvenient Truth: Legal Implications Of Errors In Breath Alcohol Analysis Arising From Statistical Uncertainty, Ian R. Coyle, David Field, Graham A. Starmer May 2010

An Inconvenient Truth: Legal Implications Of Errors In Breath Alcohol Analysis Arising From Statistical Uncertainty, Ian R. Coyle, David Field, Graham A. Starmer

David Field

The general practice in courts throughout Australia is to accept without question the accuracy of what are popularly referred to as 'breathalysers', or breath analysis instruments as they are legally described. The possibility that they might be providing false readings is only considered if that possibility is raised as a matter of evidence by a motorist who has been breathalysed, and who now faces the prospect of legal sanctions as a result of what it is alleged was revealed by the breath analysis instrument. In this article, it is argued that the methodological and statistical bases for such an assumption …


Keeping Incest In The Family, David Field Dec 2009

Keeping Incest In The Family, David Field

David Field

In its recent decision in R v Rose (2009) 227 FLR 433 [2009] QCA 83227 FLR 433 [2009] QCA 83, the Queensland Court of Appeal held that it did not constitute the crime of "incest" for a man to have consensual intercourse with the 17-year-old daughter of his former de facto because, in terms of s 222(8) of the Queensland Criminal Code , the two were "entitled to be married". The author argues that this decision has unfortunate implications, for future "victims" of such crimes, for the normally understood distinction between a "right" and a "freedom", and for the consistency …