Clearing the Mist from Retrospectivity

In this article, the author considers the New Zealand Supreme Court case of R v. Mist [2005], which unanimously quashed a sentence of preventative detention after considering the interpretation of s 75 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985. The author subsequently examines the scope of relevant legislation, such as section 6 of the Sentencing Act 2002 and section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, to further analyse retrospective increases in sentence. The article concludes that unlike s 4, s 6 does not distinguish between different types of penalty, thus indicating a reading of s 6, along with s 25(g) of the Bill of Rights Act, would extend the ambit of the old s 4.