Public Interest Immunity and Disclosure of Unused Materials in Criminal Proceedings

Abstract

This paper focuses on public interest immunity (PII) and disclosure of unused material in the context of criminal proceedings. PII used to be referred to as Crown privilege and was hardly ever raised in connection with criminal proceedings until 20 years ago. Nowadays, PII issues are often raised in connection with criminal proceedings, particularly during the process of disclosure of unused material for the purposes of criminal trials.