Summary Justice

This is the first study of the practice of judicial summing-up to juries and of its 'survey of the evidence' as rhetoric, persuasive language, in the Crown Courts of England and Wales.

The transcripts of judicial summings-up to a jury can vary from a few to hundreds of pages, and are significant in that they break the flow between advocates' turn-taking, especially their final speeches, and the deliberation of the jury. In addition to its linguistic and rhetorical concerns, the book considers this practice of summing up as a legal problem - as unrecognized advocacy - and examines alternatives, such as the US States', Canadian and Scottish models. The Scottish model is prescribed for consideration by Anglo-Welsh judges with its insistence on parsimonious reference to the disputed narrative, only where relevant to the legal issues on which instruction is being given.