Commissioner of Police v Davis: PC 1994

(Bahamas) Certain statutory provisions relating to drug offences infringed the Constitution of The Bahamas. A question then arose on the severability of one of the offending statutory provisions, section 22(8) of the Dangerous Drugs Act. This subsection related both to convictions on information and to summary convictions. The subsection was unconstitutional in its application to summary convictions but not in its application to convictions on information. In holding that section 22(8) was void only in so far as it related to summary convictions the Board applied the Hutchinson ‘substantial severability’ test. The section sought improperly to deprive defendants of their right to a jury trial.

Citations:

[1994] 1 AC 283, [1994] 4 All ER 476, [1994] CLY 496

Citing:

CitedDirector of Public Prosecutions v Hutchinson; Director of Public Prosecutions v Smith HL 12-Jul-1990
Protesters objected that byelaws which had been made to prevent access to common land, namely Greenham Common were invalid.
Held: The byelaws did prejudice the rights of common. The House was concerned to clarify the test applicable when . .

Cited by:

CitedPilar Aida Rojas v Brian Berllaque PC 10-Nov-2003
PC (Gibraltar) The system of selecting a criminal jury obliged men to be available for selection, but women could choose not to be on the role of jurors. The result was that jury lists and juries were almost . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Commonwealth, Constitutional

Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.187748