Report No. 78

2.23. Reconciliation between liberty of the individual and demands of enforcement.-

In fact, the need for such balancing seems to flow from the nature of the subject-matter. Like many other rules of law, rules as to bail are designed to reconcile a conflict of interest-conflict of interests between accused persons, who require to be at liberty before and during trial, and the State, which insists that they could be present for proceedings in court.1 The adjustment of the conflict between interest in personal freedom and interest in the efficient enforcement of criminal law is a delicate one. No tendency should be encouraged to attach excessive weight to the second consideration to the detriment of the first one.

1. See para. 1.9, supra.