Professor Paul Roberts participated in an invitation-only closed seminar, hosted by the Faculty of Law in the University of Cambridge, on 25 July 2014, to discuss Scottish criminal procedure reform in the light of wide-ranging proposals advanced by the Carloway Review in 2011. These proposals include the abolition of Scotland’s general corroboration requirement, which for many decades has been regarded as a particularly distinctive feature of Scots criminal procedure.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government set up an independent Post-corroboration Safeguards Review, chaired by a former High Court judge, Lord Bonomy, to develop more comprehensive reform proposals. The Cambridge Seminar, co-chaired by Lord Bonomy and Professor James Chalmers of Glasgow University, brought together academic members of the Safeguards Review Reference Group, representatives from the Scottish Justice Committee, and experts on Scottish and English criminal procedure (including Professor Roberts) to explore the options for reform in Scotland from broader, comparative perspectives.
The Post-corroboration Safeguards Review is due to report to the Scottish Secretary for Justice in the early part of 2015, and legislation is expected to follow promptly.
Posted on Tuesday 29th July 2014