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Rule Against Hearsay Research Paper

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HEARSAY: THE SCOPE OF THE RULE

Introduction
It will be helpful to start with a statement of the rule against hearsay. As good as any is that given in
Cross & Tapper on Evidence and adopted by Lord Havers in Sharp(1988): ‘An assertion other than one made by a person while giving oral evidence in the proceedings is inadmissible as evidence of any fact asserted.’ In order to get to grips with this idea, several points need to be considered. The order in which they are tackled is important:

(1) The rule against hearsay will exclude an item of evidence only if the purpose of adducing that evidence is to establish the truth of the matters asserted. It follows that in relation to any item of evidence which you suspect may be caught by the rule, …show more content…
Darkness came down on the field and city; and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart’;
• ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.’ But words can be used for purposes other than the making of assertions.
For example, they can be used to ask questions, to give orders or to greet somebody. There may also be ways in which to utter a form of words is to do some sort of act.

This may be governed by a religious or social convention, as when words are uttered as part of the ceremony of baptism or that of launching a new ship. Alternatively, the law may say that the utterance of a form of words in certain circumstances amounts to an act; for example, where words are uttered by way of contractual offer or acceptance. A difficulty arises because from all apparently non- assertive utterances it is possible to make inferences about the surrounding circumstances. Where such inferences can be made, it is tempting to say that the utterance, though not an express assertion, is …show more content…
Thus, if someone overhears my asking the guide the way to Larissa, he might infer that I do not know the way, and a lawyer might argue that the question operates as an implied assertion of my ignorance of the way to Larissa.
These possibilities have to be considered because of the decision of the House of Lords in Kearley (1992) to the effect that implied, as well as express assertions are caught by the rule against hearsay. It is unfortunately not clear what will count as an implied assertion for this purpose, and you will need to pay particular attention to any cases or articles to which you may be referred which discuss this problem.

(3) When stages (1) and (2) have been covered, you might think that it is time to move on to the established exceptions to the rule. But before that, you need to appreciate that despite what was said in
Myers v DPP (1965), there have been occasions when the rule against hearsay has just been conveniently ignored. The best introduction to this topic is Ashworth, A and Pattenden, R, ‘Reliability, hearsay evidence and the English criminal trial’ (1986) 102 LQR 292, pp 292–331. See also
Ward

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