ABSTRACT
The immunity from re-prosecution after acquittal – known colloquially as the rule against double jeopardy – was, until very recently, regarded as one of the bedrock human rights underpinning the fair administration of criminal justice.1 In his seminal work on the subject, Friedland observed that ‘no other procedural doctrine is more fundamental or all-pervasive’.2 O’Neill et al, in a leading Australian human rights law text, have observed:
The idea that no one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which they have already either been finally acquitted or convicted is well established in Anglo-Australian law.3
