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Journal

Student Number: Click here to enter text.

Each module in this course will have a set of Journal questions at the beginning of it. The questions are intended to encourage you to reflect on your own experiences and ideas that link with specific aspects that will be covered in this section. The quality of your reflection is the important factor here not the amount that you write. Refer to the Journal Assessment Criteria for more information relating to the quality of your entries.

When you start on a new module read through the questions and answer some of them in this journal before you start the actual module activities. You can return to the rest of the questions while you work through each section, or at the end of the module.

You must submit your journal to [email protected] on or before the due date for Assignment 3.

In this module because there are several sections you may wish to answer only some questions at this point. You can return to the rest of the questions while you work through each section, or at the end of the module.

Constitution and Public Administration

1. Which of these do you think has more power with respect to how New Zealand is run, and why?

a. The public

b. Parliament

c. The Governor General

d. The Government of the day

e. The written law

f. Judges

Click here to enter text.

2. Which of the list above do you think is more relevant to the average person, and why?


3. Reflect on your own knowledge of public administration in New Zealand or elsewhere:

a. How much do you know or want to know about public administration?

Module One: Background to the Law and Courts


b. What aspects of public administration are more or less interesting to you, and why?


Courts and Case reports

1. Reflect on your own experience of court:

a. Have you ever sat through a whole case?


b. Did it seem a friendly place or too formal?


c. What do you think about the 'jargon' of courts and lawyers?


d. How do you feel about sitting at the front of a court and being seen as the person with authority over other people's lives?


Legislation

1. Reflect on your own knowledge and experience of the written law:

a. Have you ever knowingly broken a law? - if so, how did you know it was the law?


b. Think of occasions throughout the day when you obey or are governed by law.


c. What if you disagree with a certain law - what can or should you do?


Natural Justice

1. Reflect on your own ideas about fairness:

a. Do you think someone could feel 'satisfied' after a court hearing even if they think they did nothing wrong and they have been found guilty and fined?


b. Have you experienced a time when you felt that someone didn't listen to what you were saying, or even if they did listen they did not take your contribution into account: what was that like for you?


c. Have you had an experience of being discriminated against or judged because of something about you?


d. How does it or would it feel, for example, to find out that someone who had been hearing your genuine case about a non-compliant street sign that caused you to get a ticket, consistently thought that all people like you (in some way) were idiots, and was likely to find against you because of it?


Websites

Visit each of the following websites and spend 5-10 minutes exploring them, depending on your previous knowledge of the agency or institution. (You may like to bookmark them for later reference.)

Te Papa website on the Treaty of Waitangi

Governor General of New Zealand

Parliament

NZ Government

Law Commission

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

Waitangi Treaty Grounds

Waitangi Tribunal

Select five of the websites you are most interested in and write one question in your e-journal for each one. Ensure you keep a note of the correct answer to your question.

Question 1


Question 2


Question 3


Question 4


Question 5


http://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/waitangi-tribunal

http://www.waitangi.org.nz/

http://www.dpmc.govt.nz/

http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/

http://newzealand.govt.nz/

http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/

http://gg.govt.nz/

http://www.treaty2u.govt.nz/

Your Learning Journal - Questions for reflection

Here are your journal questions for the specific aspects covered in this module. Remember that the quality of your reflection is the important factor here, not the amount that you write.

Read through the questions and answer some of them in your journal before you start the module activities. You can return to the rest of the questions while you work through each section, or at the end of the module.

Criminal Proceedings

How much do you know about the administration that takes place when someone goes to court? Where did you learn what you know?


How important do you think it will be for you as a judicial JP to know the administrative aspects behind the cases you see? Or is it more important for you to think only about the judicial matters once the case comes before you?


Jurisdiction

Do you feel that court is a place of helping people, or punishing them? How might those feelings affect your work?


How will it feel to exercise power over other people? For example you will have power to order people to pay fines or give them other sentences, or put them in custody until they see a Judge.


Assignment 1

You have just completed and submitted Assignment 1. Explain how you felt you went with the assignment.You may record processes you followed in answering the questions.Click here to enter text.

Module Two: Justices in the District Court

Judicial conduct

Should JPs be held to exactly the same standards as Judges? If not, to what extent should the standards be different?


How would you personally 'know' if you were doing something or had done something unethical? Will your paid work or other roles and your bench work be in conflict at all or cause conflicts of interest? (and if so, how will you manage them)?


Who is the appropriate person in your JP Association for you to talk with about ethics and conflict of interest issues?


Do you believe there are certain 'types' of people that you think are more likely to get into trouble than others? If so, how will you deal with this unethical bias?


Working in the court

Should Justices behave in a formal manner or a friendly manner towards court staff?


How do you think Justices should behave when interacting with Judges? To what extent will you find it challenging interacting with Judges?


What aspects of your own personality have made your JP Association believe you are the 'right' kind of person to be working in court?


What aspects of your personality or confidence might make the job easier or harder for you than for other people?


Is it possible that there will be situations or people you can't handle or don't want to be around? If so, what situations could they be and how will you handle them?


Module Three: Working in the Court

Suppression orders

1. What do you think of the idea of suppression in general - are you 'for' it or 'against' it? To what extent might your opinion affect your decisions if faced with applications?


2. What do you think are the most common reasons courts decide to order name suppression and why?


Managing Proceedings

1. Do you expect the defendants before you to be more likely to be awed and silent, or loud and angry, and why?


2. Reflect on your own experiences in situations that were very unusual, challenging or frightening for you. Did you react actively or loudly, or with quiet passivity?


3. Imagine being in court and not understanding what was going on or what was being said. How would you react?


4. How will you cope with really difficult situations in court while you are at the bench: are you prepared to speak strongly and clearly, to take charge?


5. How will you manage your feelings afterwards, whom will you speak with to de-brief if something particularly unusual or upsetting happens?


The List Court

1. How will it affect you personally if there is palpable sense of anxiety in the courtroom?


2. What are your own methods of dealing with stress and maintaining a clear head when it is required of you?


3. Which of those methods is likely to be most useful when sitting at the bench?

Module Four: Managing Proceedings


Youth court

1. How do you feel about the possibility of dealing with young people under 20, possibly as young as 14? Do you think it might be more, or less, difficult than dealing with adults?


2. How will you deal with any feelings of anger, frustration or sympathy that the young person's appearance in court arouses in you?


Disclosure

1. How does it add to fairness if both sides tell each other their evidence before the trial (or might it detract from fairness in your opinion)?


2. What might the consequences be if one party did not make full disclosure (think of the defence, prosecution, the court process, the rule of law)?


Adjournments and Bail

1. How important is it in terms of natural justice to let people go home when they have been charged with an offence but have not yet been found or pleaded guilty?


2. What is your current view of the positive and negative aspects of bail? Where did you get information to form that view?


3. When it is you making bail decisions, how hard will it be to dissociate your mind from what 'the public' might think, or what your own friends might think, or even from what you yourself might have thought before you took on this role?


Module Five: Disclosure, Adjournments and Bail

Before you start this module take some time to reflect on your current knowledge of trials.

1. What aspects of a full trial will you find the most stressful? The most enjoyable?


2. What will be the challenges for you personally when working with another Justice?


3. When working in chambers, what aspects of natural justice come into play because you are working privately and not in open court?


4. What aspects of working with another Justice in chambers will be harder or easier for you than when working in open court?


5. Do you think it will be harder or easier to think and make decisions in a separate room than when you are in open court?


6. Will you still 'feel' as if you are doing important judicial work when you are in chambers? If not, how will you remind yourself that you are doing important judicial work?


Assignment 2


Module Six: Judge-alone Trials

The questions below are intended to encourage you to reflect on your own ideas about evidence and proof. Think of situations in life - as a child, young person or adult - when it has been important to you that something has been proven to be true. Answer these questions now before you start the module activities.

1. What does it mean to you to 'prove' something? Is there a difference between proof in real life and in court?


2. Think about the word 'sure'. Does it mean 100%, or if not, what 'percent' does it mean to you?


3. To you, is 'sure' different from 'proved'? If so, how are they different?


4. Can anything be absolutely proved, or must there always be a little doubt? If so, how much doubt is acceptable?


As you will read, for most offences the onus of proof is on the prosecution. Think of it this way: Party A (prosecution), whose theory of the case is that 'party B did it' has to prove that party B did it. Party B does not have to prove anything. Party B will cast doubt on every point the prosecution brings, and may also offer a different theory of the case.

1. To what extent does this match real life situations such as parenting, schooling and employment? If it is different (or similar) why might that be?


Module Seven: Evidence, Proof and Defences Court

Read through the questions for reflection for this module and note down your responses. When you get to the end of the module revisit your answers and make notes if your answers have changed.

1. How do you make decisions in other aspects of your own life, i.e. what is your decision-making 'style'?


2. Do you think your personal decision-making style will be appropriate for court, or will you need to modify it in some way?


3. How will you know if you are sure of your decision- will you 'feel' it or will you 'know' it?


4. What if you disagree with your colleague Justice - will you be able to give your opinion succinctly and stand up for it?


5. How will you know, if you change your mind, that you were genuinely persuaded?


6. If you disagree, is there a risk that you will give in to a more experienced Justice to save trouble? If there is, how will you mitigate that risk?


Assignment 3


Journal

Before submitting your journal for marking describe how you found the journal writing process.


Module Eight: Decisions and Sentencing

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