Book Description

In Criminal Discovery: From Truth to Proof and Back Again, author Cosmas Moisidis examines aspects of pre-trial stages such as police interrogations, preliminary hearings and discovery between the prosecution and the defence, addressing contentious issues such as the right to silence and the privilege against self-incrimination. These issues give rise to strong, emotive and polarised differences of opinion. Criminal discovery is an area in which views are entrenched and passions run high. Criminal Discovery: From Truth to Proof and Back Again seeks to inform the current debate through a detailed analysis of the history, theory and practice of criminal discovery. Historical and jurisprudential matters which are not commonly known are here brought to light. The approach is holistic and comparative, examining the issues in detail with reference to the jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, United States, particularly California, and Australia. It concludes with recommendations to guide the future, putting forward a reciprocal criminal discovery model which, it is argued, will enhance the truth seeking potential of the adversarial criminal trial.