Allen Christopher. Sourcebook on evidence

London: Cavendish Publishing Limited. 1996. — 483 p.Today, when law courses are more popular than ever before, students can have real difficulty in getting at the materials they need. Libraries are often not large enough, or not sufficiently well stocked, to cater for all those who want to use them. Part-time students can be at a special disadvantage. In the end, the struggle to find materials as well as the time to read them can prove too much, and lower results are obtained in the examination than a student deserves.
I cannot hope to cure this completely in one volume. But I have placed substantial emphasis on reports of cases and have aimed to present as much of a chosen case as space allows. Wherever possible I have tried to let the facts emerge from the report. Short summaries may make for easy reading, but they are also apt to mislead. This is particularly true of evidence, where, perhaps more than in other topics, the old model of law as a system of rules is being replaced by a discretionary approach which involves the application of principles to complex factual situations. The student of this subject who has ignored the complexities of arguments about facts is likely to do poorly not only in the examination but also later when conducting cases in court. At the same time, I have kept to a minimum my own introductory material and I have avoided the sort of minute commentary on cases that, for the undergraduate at least, tends to generate more heat than light. I hope that an inevitably brief selection from the excellent articles that have been written will be of special use in preparing for essay questions.