The Internationalisation of Criminal Evidence
Beyond the Common Law and Civil Law Traditions

An examination of international attempts to develop common principles for regulating criminal evidence across different legal traditions.

John D. Jackson (Author), Sarah J. Summers (Author)

9780521688475, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 January 2012

442 pages
24.7 x 17.5 x 2 cm, 0.88 kg

'The case made by Jackson and Summers for effective rights of defence participation before as well as at trial is compelling. In emphasising the common history and shared present of the civil and common law systems rather than their differences, this work provides a fresh and illuminating perspective from the opposite side of the glass. It is an extraordinarily rich and scholarly endeavour which constructs an ambitious thesis.' Laura Hoyano, Criminal Law Review

Although there are many texts on the law of evidence, surprisingly few are devoted specifically to the comparative and international aspects of the subject. The traditional view that the law of evidence belongs within the common law tradition has obscured the reality that a genuinely cosmopolitan law of evidence is being developed in criminal cases across the common law and civil law traditions. By considering the extent to which a coherent body of common evidentiary standards is being developed in both domestic and international jurisprudence, John Jackson and Sarah Summers chart this development with particular reference to the jurisprudence on the right to a fair trial that has emerged from the European Court of Human Rights and to the attempts in the new international criminal tribunals to fashion agreed approaches towards the regulation of evidence.

1. Evidence across traditions
2. The common law tradition
3. The civil law tradition
4. Criminal evidence law and the international human rights context
5. Evidence in the international criminal tribunals
6. Fair trials and the use of improperly obtained evidence
7. The presumption of innocence
8. Silence and the privilege against self-incrimination
9. Defence participation
10. Confrontation and cross-examination
11. Conclusion: towards a theory of evidentiary defence rights.

Subject Areas: Criminal law & procedure [LNF], International criminal law [LBBZ], Law [L], Crime & criminology [JKV]