Logical evidence is a sound reasoned argument or conclusion based on facts,research, and other forms of evidence. Legal argumentation and evidence seeks to vindicate john h. In evidence, there are three kinds of relevance at work. Straightforward and practical in approach, this textbook also provides concise analysis of the theory behind the law, with an emphasis on recent discussion and current topics. Uk evidence law contents the law of evidence introduction 4 relevance and admissibility 4 relevance 4 logical relevant 6 logical relevance and exclusionary discretion 6 sufficient relevance 7 superfluity, delay and expense 8 multiplicity of issues 8 confusion and misleading of the jury 9 remoteness 9 the lies of the accused. Pdf logical and legal relevance under the uniform evidence. Wigmores theory that there is a science of reasoning underlying the law of evidence, upon which the evidence law needs to be based wigmore 19. Administrative appeals tribunal act 1975 australia. Anecdotal evidence such as witness a saw event b at time c would be least valued, but not just dismissed outright. A determination of relevancy may depend on the content of pleadings, indictments, pretrial orders, and pleas, as well as the testimony of witnesses and the opening stateme. The connection neednt be so strong that any single item of evidence alone proves or disproves the fact. Relevancy and admissibilityunder indian evidence act the expressions relevancy and admissibility are often taken to be synonymous. Principles of evidence in criminal cases thomson reuters nz.
The law of evidence 2005, third edition, sweet and maxwell available oct 2005 statute book palgrave mcmillan core statute series evidence or blackstones, statutes on evidence 8th edition 2004 or if available 9th edition 2005. This book will discuss direct and indirect proof and why it effects a judges decision differently. Proof of execution of document required by law to be attested. Relevancy is a question of fact which is the duty of lawyers. Logical and legal relevance under the uniform evidence law.
Logic and the philosophy of science princeton university. Must read for a criminal lawyer as it deals all the likely. Relevance is a logical question concerning probability. The two most basic rules in modern evidence law are that all irrelevant evidence should be excluded and all relevant evidence should be admitted. The law of evidence regulates the proof of the facts in issue at a trial through the. Legal relevancy is, for the most part, based upon logical relevancy. Relevance and admissibility relevance is the fundamental condition of admissibility of evidence. To merit its qualification, relevant evidence must have a logical nexus or con. Evidence, in law, any of the material items or assertions of fact that may be submitted to a competent tribunal as a means of ascertaining the truth of any alleged matter of fact under investigation before it to the end that court decisions are to be based on truth founded on evidence, a primary duty of courts is to conduct proper proceedings so as to hear and consider evidence. Chapter 1 introduction to law in nursing introduction. The law therefore has to be satisfied by degrees of probability of accurate truth finding. One could argue that convicting a defendant of a crime when the legal. All logically relevant facts are not legally relevant and all. Jeppe was convicted of possession of cocaine under s.
Evidence law summary lawskool summaries, models, books. Leaving aside the dissenting view for the moment, we will turn first to consider possible conceptions of relevance in the conventional sense of logical relevance. Facts which may have no logical relevance may sometimes be admissible in courts. Jan 16, 2015 thus, all evidence that is admissible is relevant, but all that is relevant is not necessarily admissible. Washer v western australia 2007 234 clr 492 at 5, n 4. Jan dejnozkas logical relevance in english evidence law innovatively explores the. Relevancy and admissibilityunder indian evidence act. Relevancy and admissibility lawctopus for law students in. Evidence may be adduced in legal proceedings to prove a fact only if the fact is relevant. The main problem in this regard is deciding which fact is legally relevant as well as logical in nature. In her preface elisabeth comments that an aim of the book is to explain not only how. Relevance can refer to logical relevance same as factual relevance, a requirement that the evidence have a tendency as a matter of human experience and logic to make the existence or nonexistence of a fact in issue more or less likely than it would be without that evidence given this meaning, relevance sets a low threshold for admissibility and reflects the inclusionary bias of our evidentiary rules. Problems of relevancy call for an answer to the question whether an. All admissible evidence is relevant but all relevant evidence is not admissible.
The legal concept of evidence stanford encyclopedia of. In general these two rules are simple, but the bulk of evidence law stems from the exceptions that have been created over our. Evidence is what we see, touch, feel, conjecture, and imagine. Thus, oral statements which are hearsay may be relevant, but not being direct evidence, are not admissible.
The law of evidence and the practice of theory penn law. The impact of the evidence act 2006 has been well recorded elsewhere. Its best read for every practicing lawyer and students for appearing in vying. For evidence to be relevant, there must be some logical connection between it and the fact its offered to prove or disprove. Principles for reform nzlc pp, 1991 at 38, and see further chapter one at 1. Those which must be found to exist before a party can succeed in the proceedings and which are not conceded the opposing party. Distinctions are made between relevancy and admissibility and between legal and logical relevancy. The legal admissibility and the logical relevancy both are very important for the evidence to be used properly for any particular case. Relevancy is a question of fact which is the duty of lawyers to decide whether to tender such evidence in the court. The ten evidence rules that every family law lawyer needs. Straightforward and practical in approach, this textbook also provides concise analysis of the theory behind the law, with an. The indian evidence act does not give the definition of the word relevant but surprisingly from section 5 to section 55 the relevancy of the facts are dealt with. Since evidence that is relevant has the capability to affect the assessment of the probability of the existence of a fact in issue, it is probative.
The recognition of natural logic article pdf available in ssrn electronic journal december 2007 with 1,209 reads. The definition of relevance in s 55 reflects the common law. The modern law of evidence is well established and relied upon as a lucid, engaging and authoritative guide to the contemporary law of evidence. It depends on the existence of a logical relationship between a fact and another fact. The uniform evidence law was intended to remedy this situation.
Logical vs legal relevance relevance can have two very. Of also presents also study the common law and civil law approaches to evidence law with the various types of evidences. All logically relevant facts are not legally relevant and. Thus, relevancy usually known as logical relevancy while admissibility is known as legal relevancy. Logical relevance merely requires evidence have a logical connection to the facts in issue. Generally in law, evidence that is not probative doesnt tend to. Relevance, in the common law of evidence, is the tendency of a given item of evidence to prove or disprove one of the legal elements of the case, or to have probative value to make one of the elements of the case likelier or not. The key to learning evidence law is to ask several questions about each problem. In a widely used textbook on the law of evidence, we find the following remark. This section contains free ebooks and guides on law books, some of the resources in this section can be viewed online and some of them can be downloaded. Relevant evidence means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Elements of the offence normally it will be the identity of the perpetrator b. Uk evidence law contents the law of evidence introduction 4 relevance and admissibility 4 relevance 4 logical relevant 6 logical relevance and exclusionary discretion 6 sufficient relevance 7 superfluity, delay and expense 8 multiplicity of issues 8 confusion and misleading of the jury 9 remoteness 9 the lies of the accused exclusionary rules 14.
The fact that it requires a logical nexus from a fact to another indicates that relevance is pertaining to common sense. This is because it was introduced some 141 years ago. When i first got to open this book as a novice i felt more like an alice in the wonderland of law. Evidence is derived from deductive reasoning, logical inference, and supposition. Evidence law general introduction introduction the first chapter of this teaching material deals with the introductory or preliminary matters such as the definition, purpose and nature of evidence law. Relevant evidence is prima facie admissible, on the basis that its admission will tend to promote the aims. Relevance can have two very different meanings in the evidentiary context.
Criminal law and procedure 01 introduction page 2 of 19 two criteria. Relevance is a threshold requirement that must be met before the court can consider the value the evidence may have. The admissibility of evidence is a question of law and it is decided by the judge as per section 6 of the evidence act. Relevance is the basic building block of evidence rulesevidence must be relevant to be admissible.
Yet if one looks to the standard writings on relevance, both in the legal and logical literatures, there. Evidence is relevant where it has some tendency as a matter of logic and. Theoretical inquiries into the nature and functions of legal doctrine typ ically focus on. The threshold test is whether there is a logical connection between the evidence and a fact in issue. Relevance is a relational concept and carries meaning only in context.
He or she should understand how relevant the evidence is to the. Must read for a criminal lawyer as it deals all the likely possible ways of evidence, witness and testimony. Relevancy is the genus of which admissibility is the species. The requirement that the capacity of the evidence to rationally affect. Relevancy is the genus of which admissibility is a species. Probative is a term used in law to signify tending to prove. Introduction the rule of law rests on the quality of legal reasoning.
This is not the place to try to bring that programme to a definitive conclusion. At common law, the test of relevance is logical relevance plus legal relevance. The legal concept of evidence stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. The common law basis for the rules relating to the admissibility of relevant evidence suffered from a number of problems. The law of evidence 2005, third edition, sweet and maxwell available oct 2005 statute book palgrave mcmillan core statute series evidence or blackstone. The cardinal principle of evidence law, to which all others are subordinate, is relevance. Logical relevance rule 401 of the federal rules of evidence. View a sample of this title using the readnow feature. Download pdf law of evidence free online new books in. Also note quotes in r v a no 22002 1 ac 45 and dpp v kilbourne 1973 ac 729 referred to in the slides.
Relevance is determined by the issues raised by the parties, the other evidence introduced, and the applicable substantive law. Among the core ideas shared by lawyers and logicians, the concept of relevance ranks high. Within the common law formulation of relevance, the idea that relevance could be split into a logical and a legal component prevailed in the. A it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence and b the fact is of consequence in determining the action. Evidence law is the laws substantive and procedural instruction for the use of evidence. Logical relevancy and legal relevancy of facts every fact that is legally relevant is also logically relevant but every logically relevant fact may not be necessarily legally relevant. Exclusion for reasons of prejudice or other dangers topic 5 preliminary questions of fact topic 6 classification of evidence as hearsay or not hearsay topic 7 exceptions to and exemptions from the hearsay rule topic 8 evidence of character, other crimes, wrongs, or acts, habit, and similar events. These two hurdles have to be crossed and it does not matter if the fact is logically relevant but not legally admissible because it renders the evidence useless. Evidence helps you develop a better, fuller understanding of the law of evidence that will carry you through your evidence class and on into practice. About the law of evidence by the previous chief examiner. One of the main problems was that the distinction between logical and legal relevance effectively hid policy considerations in the judicial process and undermined the supposedly objective grounds upon which relevancy determinations were based. The ten evidence rules that every family law lawyer.
A critical study on admissibility of evidence rojak. The law of evidence is complex, but if you work hard at it, you can develop an understanding of the individual rules and of the way the rules interact to form a coherent system. Principles of evidence are often more familiar to lawyers in commonlaw countries. Relevance can refer to logical relevance same as factual relevance, a requirement that the evidence have a tendency as a matter of human experience and logic to make the existence or nonexistence of a fact in issue more or less likely than it would be without that evidence. Evidence is relevant when it has any tendency to make a fact more or less probable than it would be without the evidence and the fact is of consequence in determining the action. Also note quotes in r v a no 22002 1 ac 45 and dpp v kilbourne 1973 ac 729 referred to. This texts direct aim is to arm the practitioner and aspiring justice profes. Within the common law formulation of relevance, the idea that relevance could be split into. Relevancy is not primarily dependant on rules of law but admissibility is founded on law. Feb 12, 2017 logical evidence is a sound reasoned argument or conclusion based on facts,research, and other forms of evidence. In criminal cases, previous good character relevant. The rule of law requires that similar cases should be decided similarly, that each case should be decided on its merits, and that decisionmaking processes should comply with applicable rules of procedure and evidence. The common law notion of logical relevance simply called relevance under the federal rules is succinctly defined in federal rule of evidence fre 401 as having any tendency to make a fact of consequence more or less probable than it would be without the evidence.
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