Review: Hong Kong Evidence Casebook
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijep.9.2.153.64811 |
| Author | Andrew L.-T. Choo |
| Subject Matter | Review |
invaluable primer with a substantial working shelf life. As a major contribution to
an excellent series, the latest Blackstone’s Guide is well worth the admission price in
my estimation.
PAUL ROBERTS
University of Nottingham, School of Law
Simon N. M. Young
HONG KONG EVIDENCE CASEBOOK
Hong Kong: Sweet & Maxwell Asia (2004), xxxvi + 930pp, hb HK$950.00/
US$122.00
The availability of legal material has been transformed by the Internet. Reports of
cases, legislative material and, increasingly, journal articles are now relatively readily
accessible directly from one’s desk. I am firmly of the view, however, that the days of
the casebook are not numbered. A good casebook is one which skilfully blends extracts
with intelligent commentary, allows extracts to ‘speak for themselves’ where
appropriate, and engages and stimulates its readers. These qualities are all on display
in good measure in Simon Young’s new Hong Kong Evidence Casebook.
Books on the law of evidence are notoriously difficult to structure and organise.
There are numerous ways in which books (and law school courses) on Evidence may
be structured. The structure adopted by Professor Young is an eminently sensible
one. He commences with a chapter in which a number of basic concepts and items
of terminology are introduced. This is followed by a chapter addressing relevance,
admissibility and the judicial discretion to exclude admissible evidence. The chapter
is titled ‘Basic Principles’, but I wonder whether a title that more clearly reflects the
actual content of the chapter might have been more helpful. Chapter 3 deals with a
large variety of issues relating to witnesses, including competence and compellability,
the course of evidence, judicial warnings about witness testimony, and the evidential
significance of silence at both the trial and pre-trial stages. I would have found it
useful to have had a clear indication at the beginning of this chapter of what was to
be covered in it, with perhaps...
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