So, we hear in The Guardian that "Government plans for changes in the law to boost rape conviction rates are in disarray after the judges who would have to put them into practice told ministers they oppose them.

Overall, the judges believe that the proposed measures are too complex and are urging ministers to have more faith in the common sense of jurors. "The law shouldn't be complicated. It should be something that everybody understands," one circuit judge said."

Um, I hate to be one to show a lack of faith in intellectual professionals who have spent goodness knows how many years learning and training and rising to their current positions, but when we have "a plummeting conviction rate for rape that has dropped from 33% of reported cases in 1977 to just 5.29% in 2004.", isn't it time we stopped relying on 'common sense'?

One is tempted to ask the judges in question if this is the same "common sense" that believes wearing skimpy clothes renders it a woman's own responsibility if she is raped?

If the conviction rate for murder dropped to less than 6% would we be as complacent? Clearly there is common sense, and there is common sense (transcript from Dispatches 16.03.2000). If only the law really was something that everyone understood.