Victims’ Rights and the Right to Review: A Corollary of the Victim’s Pre-Trial Rights to Justice

In R v Christopher Killick [2011] EWCA Crim 1608, the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal for England and Wales gave a decision setting out the rights of a crime victim to seek review of a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision not to prosecute and concluded that victims have the right to seek review in such circumstances. This included a recommendation that the right to review should be made the subject of clearer procedures and guidance. This paper discusses article 10 of the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council, (2011) 2011/0129 (COD) 18 May 2011 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (see article 11 Final Directive) as applied in the Killick case. The paper further discusses the implementation of Killick in prosecution policy, namely in the CPS guideline on the victims’ right to review (Director of Public Prosecutions for England and Wales 2014). The right to review will be canvassed in light the existing framework of victim rights available during the pre-trial phase and, in particular, the right to private prosecution, access to counsel, and adjunctive and extra-curial rights from declarations or charters of victim rights