Athwal and All That: Previous Statements,Narrative,and the Taxonomy of Hearsay

Abstract

Along with other forms of narrative evidence, s. 120 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 rendered parties' previous statements admitted to rebut suggestions of fabrication admissible evidence of any matter stated. In R v Athwal the Court of Appeal sought to situate this variety of evidence within the Act's general hearsay regime. This article questions whether s. 114 of the 2003 Act did successfully integrate such statements into other exceptions to the hearsay rule, explores the scope of this little-studied exception to the rule against narrative, and offers some thoughts both on the taxonomy of hearsay in general and on how courts might deal with an apparent drafting defect in s. 114.