Foreword to the Fifth Edition

• Author: Louise Charron
• Pages: 21-22

xxi

FOREWORD

to the Fifth Edition

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 “Stuesser” stamp of quality on it, the

book would be excellent. From my very 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 w ill appreciate what a challenging t ask

it is to distill a massive body of jurisprudence into a seemingly simple set

of principles. The challenge is particularly daunting when it comes to the

constantly-evolving law of evidence. Yet Professors Paciocco and Stuesser

have succeeded, with brilliance. The authors have not only extricated

from our Canadian jurisprudence a concise, yet scholarly, summary of

the current “rules” of evidence, they have made the law intelligible by

relating those rules to the underlying governing principles. Realistic ex-

amples bring the rules to life and make the book immensely readable.

The organization of the material is very user-friendly, making it a valu-

able guide for law students, practitioners, academics, and judges.

I have often used this textbook 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 evidence 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 the project.

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