header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us

This week's NLJ: ‘Reasonable doubt’?

© Copyright LexisNexis 2025. All Rights Reserved.
28 May 2020
Issue: 7888 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
printer mail-detail
What exactly is meant by ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ and how should a judge direct a jury?
Michael Zander QC, NLJ columnist & Emeritus Professor, LSE considers what different groups of people believe is required to secure a conviction, following inaccurate stories in the press that judges had been urged to stop using the phrase ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ because it confused jurors.

‘One could say that sure has to mean 100%,’ he writes. ‘Anything less than 100% by definition means one has doubts.’ 

 

Issue: 7888 / Categories: Legal News , Criminal
printer mail-details
RELATED ARTICLES
 

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Big tech for small firms
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
NLJ this week: SLAPPed shut?
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
NLJ this week: Justice delayed, justice denied
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
NLJ this week: Days numbered for upwards-only rent reviews
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
NLJ this week: The road ahead for employment rights
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
Copyright © 2025 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll