Honorable Mention, 2017 Scribes Book Award, The American Society of Legal Writers At the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was reeling from the effects of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Time-honored verities proved obsolete, and intellectuals in all fields sought ways to make sense of an increasingly unfamiliar reality. The legal system in particular began to buckle under the weight of its anachronism. In the midst of this crisis, John Henry Wigmore, dean of the Northwestern University School of Law, single-handedly modernized the jury trial with his 1904-5 Treatise onevidence, an encyclopedic work that dominated the conduct of trials. In so doing, he inspired generations of progressive jurists—among them Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Benjamin Cardozo, and Felix Frankfurter—to reshape American law to meet the demands of a new era. Yet Wigmore’s role as a prophet of modernity has slipped into obscurity. This book provides a radical reappraisal of his place in the birth of modern legal thought.

This book aims to provide a self-contained but critical account of the manner in which cases are tried in England and Wales.

Well-chosen negative legal proof rules can be useful procedural safeguards. They existed in both pre-modern and modern criminal procedures.

Identifies and evaluates the psychological choices implicit in the rules of evidence Evidence law is meant to facilitate trials that are fair, accurate, and efficient, and that encourage and protect important societal values and relationships. In pursuit of these often-conflicting goals, common law judges and modern drafting committees have had to perform as amateur applied psychologists. Their task has required them to employ what they think they know about the ability and motivations of witnesses to perceive, store, and retrieve information; about the effects of the litigation process on testimony and other evidence; and about our capacity to comprehend and evaluate evidence. These are the same phenomena that cognitive and social psychologists systematically study. The rules of evidence have evolved to restrain lawyers from using the most robust weapons of influence, and to direct judges to exclude certain categories of information, limit it, or instruct juries on how to think about it. Evidence law regulates the form of questions lawyers may ask, filters expert testimony, requires witnesses to take oaths, and aims to give lawyers and factfinders the tools they need to assess witnesses’ reliability. But without a thorough grounding in psychology, is the “common sense” of the rulemakers as they create these rules always, or even usually, correct? And when it is not, how can the rules be fixed? Addressed to those in both law and psychology, The Psychological Foundations of Evidence Law draws on the best current psychological research-based knowledge to identify and evaluate the choices implicit in the rules of evidence, and to suggest alternatives that psychology reveals as better for accomplishing the law’s goals.

The Modern Law of Evidence is well-established and widely relied upon as a lucid, engaging and authoritative exposition of the contemporary law of evidence. This book has been cited with approval by the highest appellate courts and continues to be a useful reference for practitioners and judges. . This seventh edition continues to provide up to date coverage of the burgeoning case law that has arisen since enactment of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. In particular, ongoing developments in the areas of hearsay and the bad character of the accused are thoroughly explained and analysed. This book has been cited with approval by the highest appellate courts and is an ideal text for the undergraduate student, students studying on the BVC and LPC. It also continues to be a useful reference for practitioners and judges.

Cross & Tapper continues to provide exceptionally clear and detailed coverage of the modern law of evidence, with an element of international comparison. The foremost authority in the area, it is a true classic of legal literature.