tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post8438801331639281349..comments2024-03-28T07:16:39.621+00:00Comments on Lallands Peat Worrier: MacAskill on “threatening, alarming and distressing behaviour”Lallands Peat Worrierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18276270498204697708noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-75465725118720428792010-02-23T09:35:00.960+00:002010-02-23T09:35:00.960+00:00On one level, of course you are right Calum - its ...On one level, of course you are right Calum - its absurd and paradoxical to anticipate what hasn't been anticipated. <br /><br />One can certainly adopt an attitude, however, that makes space in our reflection for the potentialities of <i>Fortuna</i> - and at least encourages caution firstly about saying <i>'this law with apply in such and such a way'</i>. Obviously, if you enact provisions which on their face seem exceedingly discretionary, we can be even less confident about its consequences after it has been fed through the semi-autonomous structures of prosecution and court. The prediction is ill-founded. The same sense attaches to giving prosecutors or courts powers, while in your head reassuring yourself that they are exceptional, only exceptionally to be applied - without any robust legislative provision to ensure this is the case. This is one of my big bugbears with Stewart Maxwell's wheeze to allow past bad acts to be admitted as evidence in 'serious', 'special', 'exceptional' cases. <br /><br />http://lallandspeatworrier.blogspot.com/2010/01/tobins-law.html<br /><br />On your second point, there are a profusions of 'reasonable persons' in Scots Law - whatever one of them resembles! I think you sometimes spot the youthful Lesser-Spotted Reasonable Person gamboling in the city centre - or in rural sheriffdoms, the Field Reasonable Person. Without descending into a long(er) discourse, that 'developing definition' which you allude to is not ideologically unproblematic. Mind you, the same may well be said for much of the Scots Criminal Law...Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-72493194726239398602010-02-23T02:49:12.086+00:002010-02-23T02:49:12.086+00:00Surely you can't anticipate unintended consequ...Surely you can't anticipate unintended consequences? On the issue, though, isn't the 'reasonable person' test the one that has allowed the court's understanding of defamation to develop without the continued interference of politicians?Calum Cashleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01059728094634130387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-60128732927501493182010-02-21T21:42:18.485+00:002010-02-21T21:42:18.485+00:00You're welcome, Subrosa. Whichever way one'...You're welcome, Subrosa. Whichever way one's views tend to orientate on the provision, hopefully that at least served to make the nature of the choices a little clearer.<br /><br />That said, this is the sort of legislative provision which Holyrood is usually rather keen on enacting - or at least subjects only to glancing, feeble critiques. We can probably anticipate that the proposed amendment to the Bill will pass in some form.Lallands Peat Worrierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07238432265194046726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1638916042737526171.post-42867487171490022262010-02-21T12:43:38.811+00:002010-02-21T12:43:38.811+00:00Many thanks. As I thought it is just another piec...Many thanks. As I thought it is just another piece of legislation to cover the backsides of our law enforcers and to confuse the mainly law-abiding individual even more.<br /><br />As you say, if this had clarified the 'breach of the peace' accusation then I would have welcomed it, but it does not.subrosahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00151702590329788260noreply@blogger.com