Recent Book: Cross on Evidence
| Published date | 01 April 1991 |
| Date | 01 April 1991 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X9106400213 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
RECENT BOOKS
COLIN TAPPER:
Cross
on Evidence. Seventh Edition. Published in
paperback by Butterwortbs.
The last issue of Police Journalcontaineda review of the XIVth edition of
Phipson
on
Evidence,
now regarded by many as thegreat English repository
of evidentiary law. The late Sir Rupert Cross with his first edition of Cross
onEvidence aspired to take a middle place between Phipson and Stephen.
Withoutquestion, the seventh edition has maintainedthe standard set and,
indeed, has grown in stature.
Disregarding theimpressiveTable of Cases, the book has now grown
to 757 pages, mainly because of the relentless production of legislation,
but also due, as the editor says, to the present state of the law on the
admissibility of confessional statements, in which a mass of detail has
accumulated at an appellate level but has not yet been crystallized into
concise principle.
The book retains its accent on probative example, thus satisfying
scholar and practitioneralike. Its readability and directness are refreshing,
as is the manner in which the various evidentiary strands are woven
together. In short, a book of high quality and very much a working tool
for all practising lawyers.
THOMAS MATHIESEN:
Prison
on
Trial.
Soft Cover. Price £9.95.
Published by Sage Publications Ltd.
An interesting book in which a Norwegian professor of sociology of law
analyses the rationale for the use of prisons, exploring such theories as
retribution and social defence, before arriving at an obviously pre-
concei ved condemnation of the principle of incarceration. He can find no
defence for prison and describes it as a 'fiasco in terms of its own
purposes".
Having found nothing in its favour, he then poses the question, why
do we have prisons at all? In answer, he reasons that we have prisons
because there exists a pervasive and persistent ideology
of
prisotiin our
society. Ideologies are beliefsystems which rendersocial life meaningful
and legitimate. In the next few pages, he disposes of any ideological
barriers and asks another question, what is to be done?
A simple answer to a simple question is found in a contraction of
prison and an eventual abolition of it, although he admits that the strategic
problems for the latter course should be accurate. At this juncture the
authorembarks on a foray into politics, in particular left wing realism and
its idealistic position that sees working-class crime as more or less an
illusion 'orchestrated by the ruling class in order to engendermoral panie
which distracts the population from the real problems which assail them."
Unable to accept this idealism, however, he delves into history in his quest
to find answers to the problems faced.
He foresees further contraction in the use of prison, but accepts that
184 April 1991
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