Faculty Online Seminar – ‘Calculating the ‘Arithmetic Starting Point’ of a Sentence’ by Prof. Kevin Cheng

Faculty Online Seminar – ‘Calculating the ‘Arithmetic Starting Point’ of a Sentence’ by Prof. Kevin Cheng

Different jurisdictions have varying forms of sentencing guidelines that promote uniformity and restrain judicial disparities. One common offence is the Trafficking of Dangerous Drugs (TDD), in which the Hong Kong Court of Appeal has provided sentencing ranges as guidelines for the judiciary. These ranges are based on the drug weight and drug type. While the guidelines offer structure to the sentencing process with minimum and maximum sentences, the ranges can be large spanning two to six years. This leaves the question—how do you estimate the sentence within the guideline ranges when you know the exact quantity of drugs trafficked? To aid in demystifying the sentencing process, Professor Cheng’s research team developed an online app to calculate the ‘arithmetic starting point’ of sentence for TDD offences. This presentation outlines how to use the online app, its utility for potential stakeholders, and how the equation developed to compute a sentence’s arithmetic starting point can be used as a tool to measure judicial disparity of sentencing and to evaluate the sentencing guidelines themselves. 

About the Speaker:
Prof. Kevin Cheng, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, CUHK

The Law Society of Hong Kong has awarded this seminar 1 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) point.

Date

22 Oct 2020
Expired!

Time

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Location

Online
Online
Category

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