Summary

This new edition builds on the work of Peter Bayne, the author of the 1st edition. It continues his style of integrated discussion of the uniform Evidence Acts with evidentiary principles to achieve a seamless analysis of the law. The significant legislative amendments to the uniform Evidence Acts resulting from the Australian Law Reform Commission's Uniform Evidence Law Report of December 2005 are incorporated to ensure the most up-to-date coverage of the law in the uniform Evidence Act jurisdictions. The case extracts have been updated to reflect the most current judicial interpretations of the uniform Evidence Acts and judicial statements of evidentiary principles. The chapter order now more closely reflects the structure of the uniform Evidence Acts and the incremental topic sequencing of most university undergraduate courses in evidence law. Also, Victora has recently joined the uniform Evidence Act scheme with their new Evidence Act due to commence operation later in 2009 or early 2010. Uniform Evidence Law is an essential tool and will enhance the understanding of the practical operation of evidence law in the various litigation contexts in which it arises.