Cap. 319 Art. 24

Finally, there is no right to compensation under this

*Commentary on Article 1a: Explanatory Report of the European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgements, publication of the Council of Europe, 1970, p.22. †See paragraph 19 of the same Explanatory Report which reads as follows: "19. In some states, a person wishing to appeal to a higher tribunal must in certain cases apply for leave to appeal. The right to apply to a tribunal or an administrative authority for leave to appeal is itself to be regarded as a form of review within the meaning of this article". compensation is payable "according to the law or the practice of the state concerned." This does not mean that no compensation is payable if the law or practice makes no provision for such compensation. It means that the law or practice of the state should provide for the payment of compensation in all cases to which the article applies. The intention is that states would be obliged to compensate persons only in clear cases of miscarriage of justice, in the sense that there would be acknowledgement that the person concerned was clearly innocent. The article is not intended to give a right of compensation where all the preconditions are not satisfied, for example, where an appellate, court has quashed a conviction because it had discovered some fact which introduced a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused and which had been overlooked by the trial judge.