Miscarriages of justice have been the focus of judicial and public inquiries in Britain, Canada, and Australia. The objective of Forensic Investigations and Miscarriages of Justice is to make clear that, despite the rules laid down by statutes and decided cases to ensure that criminal trials are properly conducted, there are many instances where those rules have not been properly applied. In all three jurisdictions, there have been cases in which investigations have fundamentally miscarried and where expert witnesses have given evidence that has been either fraudulent or wrong. The book reviews how these problem cases are dealt with, and the marked differences between the jurisdictions in the procedures available to identify possible errors. The authors recommend ways to narrow the gap between the rhetoric of impartial forensic science and prosecutions and the re­ality of a growing number of recognized miscarriages of justice, emphasizing that both forensic science and the legal system must change and seek to better understand each other.

Bibi Sangha completed her law degree at Middlesex University and her masters degree at the London School of Economics. She is a senior lecturer in law at Flinders University, South Australia and previously taught at the Australian National University. She was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, London and admitted to practice as a barrister in Malaysia and at the High Court of Australia. She is a joint developer of the Networked Knowledge program. 

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Kent Roach is a professor of law and the Prichard-Wilson Chair of Law and Public Policy at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and of Yale University, and a former law clerk to Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada. Professor Roach has been editor-in-chief of the Criminal Law Quarterly since 1998. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 2013 he was one of four academics awarded a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship. He is the author of twelve books, including Constitutional Remedies in Canada (winner of the Walter Owen Prize); Due Process and Victims’ Rights (shortlisted for the Donner Prize); The Supreme Court on Trial (shortlisted for the Donner Prize); Brian Dickson: A Judge’s Journey (winner of the Dafoe Prize; co-authored with Robert J. Sharpe); and The 9/11 Effect: Comparative Counter-Terrorism (winner of the David Mundell Medal). He is the co-editor of several collections of essays and published casebooks, including most recently Comparative Counter-Terrorism Law, which arose from his role as General Reporter on Counter-Terrorism Law for the XIX International Congress on Comparative Law held in 2014. With Justice Robert Sharpe, he is the co-author of The Charter of Rights and Freedoms volume in Irwin Law’s Essentials of Canadian Law series. False Security: The Radicalization of Canada’s Terror Law, co-authored with Craig Forcese, was published by Irwin Law in 2015. He has also written over 200 articles and chapters published in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as in Canada. Professor Roach has served as research director for the Inquiry into Pediatric Forensic Pathology in Ontario (the Goudge Inquiry) and for the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182. In both capacities, he edited multiple volumes of research studies. He served on the research advisory committee for the inquiry into the rendition of Maher Arar and the Ipperwash Inquiry into the killing of Dudley George. He was a special advisor to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools. Professor Roach has represented Aboriginal and civil liberties groups in many interventions before the courts, including Gladue, Wells, Ipeelee, and Anderson on sentencing Aboriginal offenders; Latimer on mandatory minimum sentences; Stillman, Dunedin Construction, Downtown East Side Sex Workers, and Ward on Charter remedies; Golden on strip searches; Khawaja on the definition of terrorism; and Corbiere and Sauvé on voting rights. He is the faculty lead for the Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights.

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Robert Moles completed his law degree at Queen’s University, Belfast and his Ph.D. at Edinburgh University. He has held academic appointments in law at Queen’s University Belfast, the Australian National University, and Adelaide University. He is joint developer of the Networked Knowledge program. 

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"In this impressive work, the experiences of Britain, Canada, and Australia are collected, compared, and analyzed by these eminently qualified experts. While the similarities are striking, the differences provide the authors with the opportunity to elucidate thoughtful recommendations that should commend themselves to policy makers in all three jurisdictions. Indeed, all who are involved in the criminal justice system and the constant need to perfect it will profit from this book."

Hon. Justice Stephen T. Goudge, Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario

"Comprehensive and groundbreaking… [A] masterly text which is certain to quickly become the primary reference point on the topic."

T.F. Percy Q.C., Wolff Chambers, Perth, Western Australia