Professor Peter Sankoff, the Faculty of Law's Associate Dean (Faculty Development), has published a new, two-volume book, The Law of Witnesses and Evidence in Canada (Thomson Reuters), that offers comprehensive analysis of the procedural rules governing witness testimony and the laws of evidence more broadly.
The book focuses on how these rules are applied in civil and criminal proceedings, as well as before administrative tribunals, public inquiries and legislative committees.
It is a significant transformation of Sankoff's earlier book Witnesses (Thomson Reuters), co-authored with the late Alan W. Mewett. Witnesses was originally published in 1991, with Sankoff contributing to this text since 1995, when he was a law student at the University of Toronto. The new book features a foreword by the Honourable Peter Lauwers, Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal, who comments that Sankoff's work is "true to Professor Mewett's legacy both in substance and in style."
"It has been a labour of love to get this complete revision done," says Sankoff. "Since 2015, I've worked to completely overhaul the old text and I had to write six completely new chapters to finally be able to cover the law of evidence the way I wanted."
New chapters assess the law of confessions and other statements, the burden of proof and the rules governing experiments and demonstrations. Another new chapter dedicated to character evidence is a significant addition. As the book asserts, "character evidence poses more unique and complex challenges for the justice system than any other type of proof."
"That was the last chapter to write," says Sankoff, "and given the way in which this area of law has developed in Canada it was undoubtedly the toughest."
The new work provides detailed coverage of the law as well as critical analysis of developments in the law of evidence. Sankoff has designed the text to be beneficial to professional practitioners, judges, legal scholars and students.
"I am really proud of this new work, which has dominated my research calendar for the past few years. I felt it was important for lawyers and students to have a book where they could access all of the procedural rules governing witness testimony and simultaneously be able to learn about the substantive rules of evidence," says Sankoff.
The Law of Witnesses and Evidence in Canada is available on Thomson Reuters' website at https://store.thomsonreuters.ca/en-ca/pdp/witnesses/30843255.