FOR10002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Admissible Evidence, The Courtroom, Feudalism
FORENSIC SCIENCE - FOR10002
WEEK 4
Legal Issues in Forensic Science
Law is referred to as an artificial construct and is needed to formulate a set of rules that captures
the social norm. Essentially everybody is treated the same according to the law.!
All people have an innate sense of right and wrong, but one person’s right and wrong do not
necessarily equate to another’s. Legal proceedings are an assessment against a set of rules not
an assessment of right and wrong.!
CHAIN OF CUSTODY
•Chain of evidence!
•Continuity of evidence!
FORENSIC
“… used in courts of law or fit for legal argument”!
Four primary areas:!
•The field!
•The laboratory!
•The office!
•The courtroom!
Investigative/Legal Process!
INITIAL INVESTIGATION / EXAMINATION —> CASE PREPARATION —> ADMISSIBILITY
BARRIER —> COURT PROCEEDINGS
Introduction to the Legal System!
Essentially inherited from Britain:!
•Source of Law — common law and legislation!
•Form of Dispute Settlement — adversarial legal system!
COMMON LAW
•The date commonly used to mark the beginning of the common law traditions is AD 1066,
when the Normans conquered England.!
•The Normans introduced the Feudal system where local lords heard disputed but all free men
had the right ti be heard by the king.!
•The king’s decrees had force throughout England. Over time, a body of decrees built up and
they were applied commonly to all Englishmen. !
•Hearing all these matters could not be done by one person (even a King) so other officials were
tasked with hearing disputes. These officials’ decisions (made on the King’s behalf) were also
incorporated into the Common Law and became precedent. !
•Judges looked not at academic interpretations and written rules but to oral tradition. “…the law
was found, not made” through argument and persuasion. !
•The Common Law had a character that was uniquely judicial and not legislative.!
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JUDGE MADE LAW
•Each court is bound by decisions of courts higher in the hierarchy !
•A decision of a court in a different hierarchy or lower in the same hierarchy may be persuasive
but will not be binding!
•A court will not consider itself bound by its own past decisions but will depart from them only
with reluctance.!
COURT HIERARCHY
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!
STATUTES OR LEGISLATION
•Originally statutes – Royal decrees !
•Judgements Royal decrees !
•Reign of Henry VIII (1491-1547) saw the passing of the sort of legislation we would recognise !
•Growth of legislation !
-1950 C/wealth parliament passed 80 Acts !
-Current C/wealth parliament passed 188 Acts !
Legislation
•Commonwealth Legislation !
-Binding on all states and territories unless specifically stated otherwise !
•State Legislation !
-Only binding on that state !
-Overruled by Commonwealth legislation where there is a conflict!
Australian Legal System!
•Criminal & civil systems are adversarial !
•Coroner’s courts, Royal Commissions and Tribunals use an ‘inquisitorial’ type system !
•However, there is no ‘pure form’ of either!
Legal Systems!
•Adversarial (Common Law) !
•Inquisitorial (Civil Law) !
•Religious !
•Customary/Traditional!
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