Welcome to the Freedom Law Clinic’s criminal law and litigation manual. This document will provide you with all the key information you need for the purpose of the SQE examinations. The SQE requires you to be able to apply the legal principles addressed in this text to practical scenarios. Therefore, it is always worth reading further than the basic statute law and caselaw in order to gain a better understanding of how these principles are applied in practice.
We begin by looking at some of the basic principles of criminal law, including who counts as a ‘party’ to a crime and what is required to be proven. Then we take a look at the key offences that you will need to know about. Then we look at the different kinds of hearings involved in criminal litigation. Then we consider some of the evidential categories and the law related to admissibility behind each category. Then we will look at the Youth Court, sentencing and appeals.
You should always try and read complete cases where you can. This text provides the case references where possible. The statutory law is all available online. Almost all of the cases have been reported and so should be similarly accessible.
Best of luck.