"Blowed off by a side wind"? Coronial inquests following criminal acquittals

For three decades, Australian coroners have been moving steadily away from an historical partnership with the criminal law, and have emerged as independent judicial investigators with a dedicated court, and forensic and administrative support structures. Occasionally, however, a situation may arise where the ghosts of coronial law's quasi-criminal past threaten to reappear, to the detriment of the coronial function. One of these situations might develop following an acquittal on a criminal charge which involved the causing of a death. Issues pertaining to a coroner's duty may remain unresolved following criminal proceedings; and the question has to be posed as to whether the result of the previous criminal prosecution restricts or confines, in any way, the scope of permissible findings by a coroner in a later inquest. This article attempts to address this question in the particular context of Queensland law and its historical antecedents--many of which are common to other jurisdictions--in the hope that it might provoke consideration of the underlying practical and theoretical issues to the future benefit of coronial legal theory.