Peter Duff - Böcker

Published in 1999. Scottish criminal law and procedure are very different from their counterparts elsewhere in the United Kingdom. This book is the first socio-legal account of the Scottish criminal justice process and its constituent institutions. Its aims are: to explain the operation of the various elements which make up the ‘system’; to summarise the considerable volume of relevant Scottish research; and to locate this knowledge within contemporary theorising about criminal justice. To this end, the editors commissioned a team of experts to write chapters on the various stages of institutions of the Scottish criminal justice process. Given Scotland’s broad social and cultural similarities to the rest of the United Kingdom, the book also provides a useful comparative perspective which should help to discourage the tendency towards overly ethnocentric theorising south of the border.

Published in 1999. Scottish criminal law and procedure are very different from their counterparts elsewhere in the United Kingdom. This book is the first socio-legal account of the Scottish criminal justice process and its constituent institutions. Its aims are: to explain the operation of the various elements which make up the ‘system’; to summarise the considerable volume of relevant Scottish research; and to locate this knowledge within contemporary theorising about criminal justice. To this end, the editors commissioned a team of experts to write chapters on the various stages of institutions of the Scottish criminal justice process. Given Scotland’s broad social and cultural similarities to the rest of the United Kingdom, the book also provides a useful comparative perspective which should help to discourage the tendency towards overly ethnocentric theorising south of the border.

Scottish criminal evidence law has recently undergone major, primarily reactive changes, with more reform on the way. These ad hoc developments are fundamentally altering the basic principles of Scottish criminal evidence which have been in place since the 19th century. The areas affected include: police questioning of suspects, the treatment of vulnerable witnesses in court, hearsay, the admissibility of the accused’s previous convictions, the Crown’s duty of disclosure and the need for corroboration. This book gathers leading experts in the field to analyse these changes, discern any patterns and ask what they ramifications are for the future of Scottish criminal evidence law.