Rules of Evidence in Australia — Text and Cases — 2nd Edition – Book Review

You may be surprised by the title but this is a fairly standard evidence text book. You might also be surprised to learn that it is targeted at the student market more so than at practising lawyers. So why review it?  

Well, Google has a lot to answer for, for a start, and, apparently, now I’ve read it I get to keep it. That noted, any contribution that assists the profession (both prospective members and practitioners) in understanding and applying of the rules of evidence is a welcome thing.

There are no groundbreaking or controversial ideas being put forward in the book (Professor Bagaric is, disappointingly, far less controversial here then he has been in other forums)³. Instead, the book covers 14 core topics, all of which will be grist for the mill for law students trying to get through their evidence exams. The topics covered include:-

The extent to which any particular text book will cover more than general topics on this area of the law is obviously restricted. What counts then is the way the authors go about detailing and explaining the relevant points.

In covering the core issues, the Professors Arenson and Bagaric have managed to cut down many of the cases to the core points, albeit, that at times perhaps too successfully for my liking. However, the points are generally succinct and clearly made. Overall, the book is presented in a straightforward manner which makes it easy to read at some length as opposed to just dropping on the precise case needed, courtesy of the index. It is organised in a logical fashion and usually gets to the point without wasting too much time. To that extent this book is a worthwhile purchase.

Rules of Evidence in Australia: Texts and Cases (2^nd Ed) is not something that will replace the more well known services that are used, regularly, in practice by the profession. However, there is a clearly a place for this book, along with many other such books, in the hands of law students.  It may also provide some assistance to those in practice who are looking for a quick refresher on some of the fundamental aspects of the rules of evidence.

Purchase at your discretion.⁴

Shaun Gordon

Footnotes

1. Associate Professor Arenson teaches at the Law School at Deakin University. He is not to be confused with Mark Arenson, one of the joint authors of a leading text on administrative law. 
2. Professor Bagaric is head of the Law School at Deakin University.
3. For a critique of Professor Bagaric’s arguments as to why judicially authorised torture should make a come back, see Sarah Joseph in Torture: the Fallacy of the Ticking Bomb  and Neil James, executive director of the Australia Defence Association and original author of the Australian Defence Force’s interrogation manual, in an essay entitled Torture: What is it, Will it work, Can it be Justified? in Andrew Lynch, Edwina MacDonald and George Williams, editors: Law and Liberty in the War on Terror, The Federation Press, 2007. For an example of Professor Bagaric’s writing on the topic, see http://www.theage.com.au/news/Opinion/A-case-for-torture/2005/05/16/1116095904947.html.
4. The text is 639 pages long; is published in soft cover and is priced from the publisher at $110.