The Abolition of Mandatory Life Imprisonment for Murder: Some Jurisprudential Issues
نویسنده
چکیده
THIS PAPER CONCERNS SOME JURISPRUDENTIAL ISSUES RAISED BY THE abolition of the mandatory life sentence for murder, a step undertaken in New South Wales in 1982— Crimes (Homicide) Amendment Act 1982, Crimes (Life Sentences) Amendment Act 1989— and Victoria in 1986— Crimes (Amendment) Act 1986. It starts, however, with more general issues of sentencing philosophy. The first main section of this paper examines the fundamental principle of sentencing in Australia— that of proportionality— together with an approach to sentencing which sees it as a matter of reaching an 'intuitive' or 'instinctive' synthesis of a number of elements. This approach has considerable support in some courts, in particular the Victorian Supreme Court. The paper rejects this approach and argues that the principle of proportionality requires clarification. It draws a distinction between two interpretations of proportionality— strict and broad. This paper examines the leading case in
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