Admissibility of Evidence

The fact that evidence may be relevant to the case does not mean that is it is necessary admissible. Thus relevance and weight must be distinguished. The weight of the evidence is to be determined as a question of fact for the jury or tribunal, whilst admissibility ids a matter of law for the judge. That is not to say however that the judge will not take into account the weight of the evidence in many situations involving admissibility or to uphold a submission of no case to answer. For example in deciding whether preliminary facts have been established in order to As we shall see there are many bars to admissibility including the doctrine of hearsay, the rules relating to confessions and the law as regards similar fact evidence.

For preliminary purposes it must be said that there is no common law rule that allows judges to exercise an inclusionay discretion in cases. Thus, unless a statutory exception applies a judge cannot allow evidence to be admitted unless it would be otherwise inadmissible as per the case of Sparks v R.

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