Evidence Core Text

by Munday, Roderick

• ISBN13: 9780199554331
• ISBN10: 0199554331
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Core Text series takes the reader straight to the heart of the subject, providing a reliable and invaluable guide for students of law at all levels. Written by leading academics and renowned for their clarity, these concise texts explain the intellectual challenges of each area of the law. Munday's Evidence provides students with a succinct, yet thought-provoking introduction to all of the key areas covered on undergraduate law of evidence courses. Vibrant and engagingly written, this book sets out to demystify a traditionally intimidating area of law. Probing analysis of the issues, both historical and topical, ensures that this text contains a thorough exploration of the 'core' of the subject. Online Resource Center This book is accompanied by an Online Resource Center, containing twice-yearly updates to the text, and a useful list of web links.

Author Biography

Dr. Roderick Munday is currently a Reader in Law at the University of Cambridge and a Visiting Professor at the Universite Pantheon-Assas, Paris II. He is also Fellow and Director of Studies in Law at Peterhouse, Cambridge and is Editor-in-Chief of the Justice of the Peace Reports. He has written and lectured extensively on the law of evidence.

Table of Contents

Preface to fifth edition	p. v
Table of cases	p. xiii
Table of statutes	p. xxxiii
Table of international instruments	p. xii
Introduction	p. 1
Relevance and admissibility of evidence	p. 19
The respective functions of judge and jury	p. 21
The concept of relevance	p. 24
The so-called 'best evidence principle'	p. 30
Matters of which proof is unnecessary	p. 31
Judicial findings as evidence	p. 38
Prejudicial evidence, unfairly obtained evidence and suspect witnesses	p. 50
Evidence excluded as a matter of public policy	p. 66
Further Reading	p. 73
Self-Test Questions	p. 73
Presumptions and the burden of proof	p. 75
Criminal and civil burdens of proof	p. 76
The 'legal burden of proof' and the 'evidential burden'	p. 78
The 'tactical burden'	p. 80
The prosecution's legal burden of proof in criminal cases	p. 81
When the defendant in a criminal case bears the legal burden of proof	p. 83
The standard of proof	p. 90
The evidential burden	p. 92
The judge's 'invisible burden'	p. 94
The burden of proof when establishing the admissibility of evidence	p. 98
Presumptions and the incidence of the burden of proof	p. 99
Reversal of the burden of proof and the European Convention on Human Rights	p. 99
Further Reading	p. 123
Self-Test Questions	p. 124
Witnesses: competence, compellability and various privileges	p. 125
The competence of witnesses in civil and criminal cases	p. 126
The compellability of witnesses	p. 128
Sworn and unsworn evidence	p. 138
Privileges enjoyed by certain classes of witness	p. 139
Public interest immunity	p. 156
Further Reading	p. 160
Self-Test Questions	p. 161
The course of the trial	p. 163
The right to begin	p. 164
The role of the judge	p. 165
The judge's right to call a witness	p. 166
Examination-in-chief	p. 167
Hostile witnesses	p. 168
Cross-examination	p. 172
Re-examination	p. 192
Calling evidence relating to witnesses' veracity	p. 193
The Crown's right to reopen its case	p. 198
Special protections extended to various classes of witness in criminal cases	p. 201
Protection of sexual complainants, child witnesses and others from cross-examination by the defendant in person	p. 212
Further Reading	p. 229
Self-Test Questions	p. 230
Witnesses' previous consistent statements and the remnants of the rule against narrative	p. 233
The rule excluding previous consistent statements	p. 234
Evidence-in-chief delivered by video recording (Criminal Justice Act 2003, s 137)	p. 256
Statements made by the accused when first taxed with incriminating facts	p. 258
Statements made by the accused when incriminating articles are recovered	p. 259
Further Reading	p. 260
Self-Test Questions	p. 260
Character and credibility	p. 263
Issue and credit	p. 263
The concept of 'credibility'	p. 265
Bringing out the character of the parties and their witnesses	p. 266
Evidence of the defendant's good character	p. 271
Further Reading	p. 281
Self-Test Questions	p. 281
Evidence of the defendant's bad character	p. 283
Whether or not to admit evidence of a defendant's misconduct on other occasions	p. 285
The admission of evidence of a defendant's bad character in criminal cases: Part 11 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003	p. 290
Similar fact evidence in civil cases	p. 372
Further Reading	p. 375
Self-Test Questions	p. 376
The opinion rule and the presentation of expert evidence	p. 379
The general rule excluding evidence of opinion	p. 380
Four exceptions to the opinion rule born of necessity	p. 381
The principal exception to the opinion rule: expert opinion	p. 382
Scientific evidence: the presentation of DNA evidence	p. 404
Scientific evidence: the presentation of Bayes theorem and instructing the jury in mathematical probabilities	p. 409
Further Reading	p. 411
Self-Test Questions	p. 411
The rule against hearsay	p. 413
The rationale underlying a rule against hearsay	p. 414
Hearsay in criminal cases	p. 417
Defects in the rule against hearsay prior to the enactment of the Criminal Justice Act 2003	p. 417
What now constitutes hearsay evidence under the Criminal Justice Act 2003	p. 421
Exceptions to the rule against hearsay (s 114)	p. 427
Admissibility of 'multiple hearsay' (s 121)	p. 462
Testing the credibility of makers of statements who do not testify (s 125)	p. 465
Stopping the case where hearsay evidence is unconvincing (s 125)	p. 467
The court's general discretion to exclude evidence in the interest of case management (s 126)	p. 468
Other statutory exceptions to the hearsay rule	p. 469
Human rights law, the rule against hearsay and its exceptions (ECHR, Article 6(3)(d))	p. 470
Anonymous witnesses: the Criminal Evidence (Witness Anonymity) Act 2008	p. 475
Hearsay in civil Proceedings	p. 482
Further Reading	p. 487
Self-Test Questions	p. 488
Confessions	p. 491
What Constitutes a 'confession' under PACE, s 82(1)?	p. 494
At common law an accused's silence may amount to an admission	p. 496
Can a denial ever amount to a 'confession' under PACE, s 82(1)?	p. 498
The conditions of admissibility of confessions under PACE	p. 501
What if the accused, having first made an inadmissible confession, later makes a further confession which is obtained by proper methods?	p. 519
Confessions made by mentally handicapped persons (PACE, s 77)	p. 520
The admissibility of evidence discovered in consequence of an inadmissible confession	p. 521
Using the confession to show that the accused speaks, writes or expresses himself in a particular way	p. 522
The status of 'mixed statements'	p. 523
An accused's statement to the police is not normally evidence against other co-accused	p. 524
An accused's right to use his co-accused's confession (PACE s 76A)	p. 528
Confessions by third parties, the prosecution and the hearsay rule	p. 534
Further Reading	p. 536
Self-Test Questions	p. 537
Drawing adverse inferences from a defendant's omissions, lies or false alibis	p. 541
Inferences drawn from the defendant's silence: the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994	p. 542
The silence provisions of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994	p. 548
Inferences drawn from lies told by the defendant: Lucas directions	p. 590
Inferences drawn from false alibis put forward by the defendant	p. 593
Further Reading	p. 594
Self-Test Questions	p. 595
Identification evidence	p. 597
The inherent unreliability of evidence of identification	p. 598
The Court of Appeal's decision in Turnbull	p. 599
Identification procedures and PACE, Code D	p. 611
Code D and the various methods of identification	p. 618
Further Reading	p. 628
Self-Test Questions	p. 628
Documents	p. 631
What is a 'document'?	p. 632
Proof of 'public documents' and 'judicial documents'	p. 632
Proof of 'private documents' by primary evidence	p. 633
Proof of 'private documents' by means of copies	p. 634
Proof of 'private documents' by means of other forms of secondary evidence	p. 635
Bankers' books	p. 636
Self-Test Questions	p. 639
Index	p. 641
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