Sydney Law Review, 2012, 34: 466-492

This article takes stock of what is happening in the defence of battered women who are charged with homicide across three jurisdictions — Australia, Canada and New Zealand. In Part II, [the authors] briefly outline the current legal requirements for the most relevant defences in all three jurisdictions, with a focus on those legal developments that are likely to assist in the defence of battered women. In Part III, [the authors] xamine general trends in how homicide cases involving accused battered women were resolved in the three jurisdictions from 2000 to 2010. This analysis suggests that further work is needed to improve the legal response to these kinds of cases, but that the changes needed are not necessarily in the area of statutory reform. In the conclusion, the authors comment that while "New Zealand.... has had one of the more liberal statutory definitions of self-defence throughout the period under scrutiny (2000–10) and yet has the highest conviction rate for murder and the lowest acquittal rate over that period of time. The converse appears to be true for Canada." Record #3980