The evolution of the modern criminal trial: a plethora of change

Abstract

This paper explores changes over recent decades to the law governing a Queensland criminal trial, from committal through to the Judge’s summing up. Reforms have included: substantial removal of the accused’s entitlement to a committal hearing; the restriction of the exposure of child witnesses in relation to sexual offences; the prosecution’s enhanced duty of disclosure; the 1997 introduction of a facility for pre-trial directions hearings; the increasing scope for judges to instruct the jury, from trial commencement, since the 1980s; 1995 reforms in relation to jury empanelment, removing parties’ unlimited peremptory rights of challenge without cause; and changes to trial evidence presentation, with growing use of audiovisual technologies and restrictions on the cross-examination of rape complainants. The paper raises further possible reforms, such as strengthening the disclosure requirements of the defence and empowering judges to assist jurors’ understanding of what constitutes ‘beyond reasonable doubt’, with Victorian legislation as a model.