Recent Book: Help for the Examinee: Coddington's Law of Evidence
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7004301008 |
| Date | 01 October 1970 |
| Published date | 01 October 1970 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
We are still perhaps over-sceptical in this country about the
value of research applied to police work because it is possible to
argue for ever about the criteria which should be applied to the
effectiveness of police work.
The final sentence of this book is one which we might well all
adopt. "The problem of crime like the problem of disease is
not
in
any final sense soluble. But it can be subjected to effective control.
We cannot expect more; there is no reason why we should be satisfied
with less".
HELP
FOR
THE
EXAMINEE
J.
DANIEL DEVLIN
(Editor): Coddington's Law
of
Evidence. Police Review
Publishing Co. Ltd. 7s. 6d
Five years have elapsed since the
last edition of this little book was
published. The size has been exactly
maintained and the price has in-
creased by only
Is.-both
achieve-
ments today! The
author
does not
claim the book is a substitute for the
larger works on evidence, such as
Phipson or Cross, and it is made clear
it only deals with evidence in criminal
cases. The minimum alteration has
been made to the text consistent with
the necessity to bring it up to date
because of new legislation and im-
portant judicial decisions. Twelve new
cases are included and references to
seven have been deleted. Some para-
graphs have been almost rewritten,
and
others have merely had additions
made to them. The only completely
new subjects are three paragraphs
under the heading "hearsay". These
deal briefly with formal admissions
and written statements under the
provisions of the Criminal Justice
Act, 1967, and trade
or
business
records under the Criminal Evidence
Act, 1965. The appendix contains 24
specimen questions and answers;
these are almost identical to those in
the 11th
edition-minor
alterations in
dates have been made in question 19
and burglary has been substituted for
house-breaking in question 20. The
300
leading case, and the most recent,
dealing with the subject of agent
nrovocateur is R. v. Birtles (1969) 2
All E.R. 1131n,
and
it is surprising
this is not included in para. 60 to the
exclusion of the older case of Brannan
v. Peek. In particular, the lines of
guidance set out in Birtles's case coi-td
well have been included. Paragraj.h
116, dealing with dying declarations,
does not contain any reference to
Waugh v. R. (1950) A.C. 203, in which
the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council decided that such a statement
must be complete before it is admis-
sible and no mention is made
of
evidence by means of tape recorders.
Although the book is produced
primarily for police officers who do
not take so much notice of such
things, it must be mentioned
that
the
reference to "All
E.R."
and "Cr.
App,
R."
are incorrectly given
throughout as A.E.R. and C.A.R.
These are, however, minor criticisms
of
an excellent little book which achieves,
at a modest price, what the
author
intended-coverage
of the syllabus
of
the police promotion examinations in
so far as it relates to evidence.
It
contains a lot
of
information in a
small space and is well worth buying.
G.E.F.
October 1970
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