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Full-Text Articles in Evidence

Private Search And Seizure: The Constitutionality Of Anton Piller Orders In Canada, Dimitros Valkanas Jun 2022

Private Search And Seizure: The Constitutionality Of Anton Piller Orders In Canada, Dimitros Valkanas

Dalhousie Law Journal

This paper examines the constitutionality of the Anton Piller order in Canadian law. First, the paper examines whether Anton Piller orders overall are unconstitutional through three major avenues of attack: (i) Charter challenges; (ii) the ultra vires doctrine; and (iii) the principle of natural justice, audi alteram partem. Afterwards, in the event that no challenge against Anton Piller orders broadly would succeed, the paper examines whether their uniquely Canadian variant known as a “rolling” or “John (or Jane) Doe” Anton Piller orders could be challenged, looking at both Charter and non-Charter challenges. Finally, this paper proposes the imposition of additional …


Re-Thinking The Process For Administering Oaths And Affirmations, Colton Fehr Dec 2020

Re-Thinking The Process For Administering Oaths And Affirmations, Colton Fehr

Dalhousie Law Journal

Courts around the world require witnesses to swear an oath to a religious deity or affirm to tell the truth before providing testimony. It is widely thought that such a process has the potential to give rise to unnecessary bias against witnesses based on their religious beliefs or lack thereof. Scholars have offered two main prescriptions to remedy this problem: (i) abolish the oath and have all witnesses promise to tell the truth; or (ii) require oath-swearing witnesses to invoke a non-specific reference to God. The former proposal is problematic as it rests on the unproven assertion that giving an …


Judicial Treatment Of Aboriginal Peoples’ Oral History Evidence: More Room For Reconciliation, Jimmy Peterson Dec 2019

Judicial Treatment Of Aboriginal Peoples’ Oral History Evidence: More Room For Reconciliation, Jimmy Peterson

Dalhousie Law Journal

Oral history is the only past record in many Aboriginal groups in Canada. In 1997, in Delgamuukw, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that the strict approach to evidence law with respect to oral history had to be relaxed for Aboriginal peoples to be able to pursue claims to Aboriginal rights or Aboriginal title. This was a necessary element of the attempt to achieve reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. Yet, while evidence law has become increasingly flexible when it comes to accommodating Aboriginal peoples, courts have struggled with how to value oral traditions. A review of the case …


The Problem Of Similar Fact Evidence, C. R. Williams May 1979

The Problem Of Similar Fact Evidence, C. R. Williams

Dalhousie Law Journal

Similar fact evidence raises in a particularly acute form the conflict between two competing principles in the law of evidence. On the one hand, the principle that evidence of high probative value ought to be admitted. On the other, the principle that in criminal trials evidence possessing a significant potential for prejudice ought, in the interests of fairness, to be excluded. The expression "similar fact evidence" is here used broadly to refer to all evidence which shows that on some other occasion the accused acted in a way more or less similar to the way in which the prosecution alleges …