Foreword

• Author: Louise Charron
• Profession: Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
• Pages: 21-22

xxi

FOR E WOR D

Some years ago, I agreed to write the foreword to the f‌irst edition of this

book with enthusiasm. Even without seeing the manuscript, I felt con-

f‌ident that with a “Paciocco” and “Stues ser” stamp of qual ity on it, the

book would be e xcellent. From my ver y f‌irst reading, I thought it was

even better than an excellent piece of writing — it had all the makings

of a very useful tool for all consumers of the law of evidence. Several

editions later, I know that it is.

Any experienced legal writer will appreciate what a challenging

task it is to distill a mas sive body of jur isprudence into a seemingly

simple set of principles. The ch allenge is particularly daunting when

it comes to the constantly-evolving law of ev idence. Yet Professors

Paciocco and Stuesser have succeeded, with brilliance. The authors

have not only extricated from our Canadi an jur isprudence a concise,

yet scholarly, summar y of the current “rules” of evidence, they have

made the law intelligible by relating those rule s to the underlying gov-

erning principles. Re alistic examples bring the rules to life and make

the book immensely readable. The organization of the material is very

user-friendly, making it a valuable guide for law students, practitioners,

academics, and judges.

I have often used this te xtbook in my daily work over the years. In

2003–2004, I took a six-month leave from my regular judicial duties

to prepare an electronic bench book on the law of ev idence for the Na-

tional Judicial Institute for use by Canadian trial and appellate judges.

I could think of no better text to use as a backdrop for t he project.

With the permission of the authors and the publisher, the textbook was

therefore adapted to meet the particular requirements of sitting judges.

The format of t he book may have been adapted to suit the electronic