Judge criticises law blunders
PA New Plymouth Mr Justice Speight has sharply criticised “increasingly complex and incompetent” legislation coming from Parliament. He was speaking in the Supreme Court at New
Plymouth when considering an appeal against conviction covered by the blood-alcohol legislation in the Transport Act, 1962. His Honour added: “Amendments come tumbling out before the ink is dry on the enactment, and it is becoming more common.” He called the drafting of the amendment under question — it had two contradictory sections — “inadequate.” Later, when considering the same legislation, his Honour, shook his head and said: “Oh dear. This (legislation) is not fit for human consumption.” He ended by dismissing the appeals but capped it off by saying: “There are no costs.' Private citizens are constantly being landed with incompetent legislation which needs to be continually questioned and tested.”
Counsel for the appellants argued that the Magistrate who heard the cases of Douglas Patrick McCabe and Colin George Mellors, both of New Plymouth, convicted of driving with excess alcohol levels, invoked section 43 of the Evidence Act “incorrectly.”
His Honour said the only way the Magistrate could resolve the matter of the “legislative slip” was to invoke section 43.
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Press, 25 May 1977, Page 28
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199Judge criticises law blunders Press, 25 May 1977, Page 28
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