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- Title
THE JUDGES' RULES AND POLICE INTERROGATION IN ENGLAND TODAY.
- Authors
St. Johnson, T. E.
- Abstract
This article looks at the current status of the judges' rules and police interrogation in England. In order to discuss the problems of police interrogation, the restrictions, the rules and the administrative directions by which it is governed, it is first necessary to know some of the fundamental principles of the English Criminal Law, and the relative functions of the police service. It has been a well established proposition of the laws of evidence for over 100 years that a confession is admissible at a trial only if it was made voluntarily and without inducements, threats, tricks or force. It is to this primary rule of the Common Law that what we know as the Judges' Rules owe their origin. One of the primary functions of the police is to investigate all crimes which are brought to their notice and wherever possible to bring the perpetrators before the courts, together with all the relevant evidence. The methods used in the interrogation of suspected persons and the value of evidence thus obtained has long been the subject of common, both judicial and otherwise, and perhaps it will ever remain so. It is difficult to achieve a correct balance between the need to ensure that the police have adequate means to investigate crime, and the desirability of protecting the innocent and the liberty of the subject.
- Subjects
ENGLAND; POLICE questioning; JUDGES; CRIMINAL justice personnel; POLICE; CRIMINAL investigation; CRIMINAL procedure
- Publication
Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology & Police Science, 1966, Vol 57, Issue 1, p85
- ISSN
0022-0205
- Publication type
Article