Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 10

     
     1        could not.  There are sometimes circumstances -----
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Certainly, if it was what he had been told by
     4        someone else, I could not.
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  Or his account of what he has read in the
     7        documents which speak for themselves.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:  Can I just ask about this?   I am just a bit
    10        concerned about documents and what Mr. Rampton is saying
    11        just speak for themselves.  How can a document speak for
    12        itself, unless it has a Civil Evidence Act notice on it?
    13        If it has a Civil Evidence Act notice on it and it is from
    14        this country, then we can demand that a witness comes to
    15        court.  So, I am just a bit concerned about what the
    16        situation is, really.
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not concern yourself about it because we
    19        will follow the normal rules of evidence.
    20
    MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, if we are to do that, then I will fly by
    22        the book and the documents of which I am aware I will not
    23        disclose.  I will simply ask Mr. Bruton questions.  If he
    24        should deny them, deny my questions, then I shall put the
    25        documents in front of him and ask him whether he adheres to
    26        his answer.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What has been said before is that if a
    29        document is put to a witness merely to cross-examine as to
    30        credit, not as to whether what he said is right or not
    31        (which may seem a fine distinction but one which has to be
    32        made), you do not have to disclose the document.
    33
    34        If I can try to give you an example?  If a witness
    35        expresses a view of something which is contrary to a view a
    36        witness of yours is going to express, and your witness
    37        basis it in part at least on a document, you can put that
    38        document to the witness and you should disclose it in
    39        advance.  That is the procedure we have tried to follow.
    40        That is not cross-examination as to what lawyers call
         credit.  It may be cross-examination as to whether the
    42        witness' evidence may be reliable or not, but it is not
    43        cross-examination as to whether he is telling the truth in
    44        the sense of whether he is saying what he thinks to be true
    45        or what he thinks to be false.
    46
    47        If a witness says something and you want to say: "That is
    48        quite untrue, and you know it is untrue, and you have a
    49        statement which that witness has written in the past
    50        himself saying something completely different, you can put 
    51        that without any notice to him to contradict him.  That is 
    52        cross-examination as to credit.  You did that, or it could 
    53        be thought that you did that, in relation to something
    54        Professor Wheelock had written, do you remember?
    55
    56        In fact, I thought that was a rather grey area between just
    57        testing the weight to be attributed to his evidence and
    58        actual cross-examination about credit.  Unfortunately, lots
    59        of these things do fall in a rather grey area.
    60