The Exclusion of Unlawfully Obtained Evidence: A Comparative Study

THIS article examines the law in the United States, Great Britain and Australia governing the exclusion of evidence obtained by the police as a result of an illegal search and seizure. In any such discussion of an aspect of criminal justice and its treatment in the courts there are several features of the process which we must endeavour to keep in the forefront of our attention. First, the criminal justice system is a system. Police behaviour, for example, influences the collection and admissibility of evidence, the evidence affects plea bargaining, the bargaining affects the trial, the trial affects sentence and so on. Secondly, it is a system riddled with discretionary authority, to find facts, to formulate or not formulate rules, and to apply rules to concrete yet infinitely variable situations. Thirdly, the system operates in a particular time and place, in a specific historical and normative context. As