ABSTRACT
Justice is the currency which is expected to circulate throughout the criminal justice system, and in most people's view, that system is the institution which is entrusted with the duty of ensuring that justice is both done and seen to be done. However, when evidence to the contrary occasionally comes to light, as has happened in the long, drawn-out attempts to get at the 'truth' in recent well-publicised cases of miscarriages of justice, such as the Guildford Six, the Maguires, the Birmingham Four, the Bradford Twelve and the Cardiff Four, it is hotly disputed (Kennedy, 1992). If errors are admitted, they are usually attributed to a few corrupt individuals rather than being considered signs of failure in the system itself.
