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On sabbatical leave this term.
Laura Hoyano graduated from the University of Alberta in Canada with two degrees in medieval history before being converted to law, receiving a JD (Gold Medallist) from the University of Alberta. She was called to the Alberta Bar in 1983 and practised commercial, insurance and catastrophic personal injury law for 10 years, interrupted by a sabbatical year in 1990-91 to read for the B.C.L. at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1994 she decided to return to academic life, moving to England to accept an academic appointment at the Law Faculty of the University of Bristol. In 1999 she was elected to a Tutorial Fellowship and CUF Lectureship at Wadham College in Oxford, where she teaches Tort Law, European Human Rights, Medical Law and Ethics and Evidence. In 2009 she was elected as a Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, with an advisory role concerning the enhancement of diversity at the English Bar. She has conducted empirical research for the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office on prosecutorial decision making and on child abuse prosecutions. She chairs the Independent Advisory Committee on Child Maltreatment convened by Action for Children, which drafted a new offence of child maltreatment which is currently before Parliament. In December 2012 she was invited by the Verma Committee on Amendments to the Criminal Law, appointed as a consequence of the furore sparked by a gang rape and murder in December 2012, to advise them on reform of substantive sexual assault offences for adults, children and other vulnerable persons, and a range of issues pertaining to more effective trials of such offences, including special measures for vulnerable witnesses, her contribution being acknowledged in the Report and in the national press conference held by Chief Justice Verma. She has recently been consulted by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabularies and the NSPCC with regard to their enquiries into the investigation of sexual abuse allegations against Jimmy Savile. She is also frequently consulted by the Ministry of Justice, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Criminal Bar Association on a range of issues relating to child abuse and exploitation prosecutions.
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2013
Laura Hoyano and Dr Eileen Vizard, 'Child Defendants and Neuroscience' (2013) (forthcoming) [...]
This article will explore recent developments in neuroscience which show that the normal adolescent brain does not fully develop in its capacity to appreciate consequences and assume full responsibility for conduct until many years past the age of criminal responsibility, currently 10 in England and Wales. The article will advocate that England and Wales should move to the Scottish Children's Hearing System, which offers an integrated service to offending children who are deemed to be children in need to address their offending behaviour and its root causes without criminalisation.
2012
R Taylor and Laura Hoyano, 'Criminal Child Maltreatment: the Case for Reform' (2012) 2012 Sweet & Maxwell, Criminal Law Review 871 [...]
The current offence of child cruelty in the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 (CYPA) originates in 1868. This article contends that it is not fit for its purpose, particularly given new understanding of the neurological and developmental impairments inflicted by neglect and emotional abuse. It should be replaced by a comprehensive maltreatment offence which is comprehensible to criminal and civil child protection agencies, professionals and the public.
Laura Hoyano, 'What Is Balanced on the Scales of Justice? In Search of the Essence of the Right to a Fair Trial' [2012] Criminal Law Review (forthcoming) [...]
This article contests the notion, prevalent in British jurisprudence regarding ECHR Article 6, and recently adopted by the Grand Chamber in Al-Khawaja v UK, that the right to a fair trial involves the 'balancing' of the rights of the defendant against the rights of the prosecution, the complainant and other witnesses, and the community at large. It argues that the whole notion of balancing is fundamentally misconceived, setting up a conflictual trap whereby defence rights are always seen as being in antithesis to those of the prosecution representing the overarching public interest. Instead, I propose a model embodying a sense of objective fairness predicated upon the right to a verdict with integrity; as such this right is not allocated to any one participant in the trial but is a common good, erasing any perceived antitheses within Article 6. The article goes on to explore the concept of "the essence of the right" in Article 6(3) caselaw, and explains why this has been extinguished by the approach to Article 6 of the Grand Chamber in Al-Khawaja, sacrificing principle to juridical, and possibly political, expediency. The consequence is that Article 6 now only serves to protect the right to a 'fair-ish' trial.
2010
Laura Hoyano, 'Coroners And Justice Act 2009 -- (3) Special Measures Directions Take Two: Entrenching Unequal Access to Justice?' [2010] [2010] Criminal Law Review 345 [...]
This article maps (through diagrams) and analyses the changes made by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 to existing Special Measures Directions for child witnesses, child defendants and complainants of sexual assault under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. Adult defendants suffering from some form of significant mental impairment are for the first time made eligible to apply for leave to testify using the live link and with the assistance of an intermediary. In addition, the 2009 Act deems witnesses to violent offences against the person involving the use of firearms or knives to be intimidated and hence automatically eligible for Special Measures. The article concludes that the measures for defendants do not go far enough and are susceptible to challenge under ECHR Article 6, and perhaps go too far in introducing anomalies in the treatment of different categories of intimidated witnesses.
Laura Hoyano, 'Ecclesiastical Responsibility for Clerical Wrongdoing' (2010) 18 Tort Law Review 154
Teaching: Criminal Law; Evidence; Tort; Medical Law and Ethics; Human Rights Law
Research: Tort Law, Evidence, Human Rights, Medical Law & Ethics, Criminal Law
