Foreword

• Author: Steve Coughlan
• Pages: 15-16

xv

FOR E WOR D

Bernard Shaw sent Winston Churchill two tickets to the opening

of one of his plays. He invited Churchill to come and bring a friend,

if he had one. Churchill replied that he could not make the opening,

but would come to the second night, if there was one. I had much

more conf‌idence that Professor Coughlan’s book would have a second

edition than Churchill was that there would be a second night for

Shaw’s play. The book combines sound scholarship with commend-

able brevity in a way that makes it helpful to a wide range of audiences.

Professor Coughlan set out to provide a survey of the structure, archi-

tecture, and competing values of cri minal procedure and his f‌irst edition

succeeded marvellously. I am therefore pleased, but not surprised, to see

this updated version which ens ures that this useful text rem ains current.

The structure of Canadian criminal procedure consists of a com-

plex set of statutory rules. But its architecture is shaped by ancient

common law principles and deep societal values, many of which have

been both preserved and given new life by the Canadian Charter of

Rights and Freedoms. The subject is, as Professor Coughlan astutely ob-

serves, one in which import ant questions of legal principle and societal

values underlie almost every question. The complex technicality of the

subject must be mastered, but not to the neglect of the underlying fun-

damental principles and deeply held values that are in play. This book

succeeds in striking this diff‌icult balance, never neglecting the rules

but never failing to place them in the broader context of the underlying

principles and values.