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The hearsay provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 reformed the common law relating to the admissibility of hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings begun on or after 4 April 2005. Section 114 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 defines hearsay evidence as a statement not made in oral evidence in criminal proceedings and admissible as evidence of any matter stated but only if certain conditions are met, specifically where: * It is in the interests of justice to admit it (see section 114(1)(d)) * The witness cannot attend (see section 116) * The evidence is in a document (see section 117) * The evidence is multiple hearsay (see section 121) The meaning of “statements” and “matter stated” is explained in section 115 of the 2003 Act. “Oral evidence” is defined in section 134(1) of that Act. ==History of the rule== The rules of hearsay began to form properly in the late seventeenth century and had become fully established by the early nineteenth century. The issues were analysed in substantial detail in ''Wright v Doe d Tatham''.〔(1837) 7 Ad & El 313〕 The technical nature of the discussion in ''Doe d Tatham'' inhibited much reasoned progress of the law, whose progress (in the form of judicial capacity to reform it) ended not long afterwards.〔''Sugden v Lord St Leonards'' (1876) 1 PD 154; see also ''Sturla v Freccia'', below〕 Later attempts to reform through the common law it got little further, with Lord Reid in ''Myers v DPP''〔() AC 1001 at 1021〕 saying There was some statutory reform in the nineteenth century (see Bankers' Books Evidence Act), and later the Evidence Act 1938 made some further if cautious reforms. The state of the hearsay rules were regarded as 'absurd' by Lord Reid〔 and Lord Diplock.〔''Jones v Metcalfe'' () 1 WLR 1286 at 1291〕 The Law Commission〔13th Report of the Law Reform Committee Cmnd 2964 (1966), para 11〕 and Supreme Court committee〔Report of the Committee on Supreme Court practice and procedure, Cmnd 8878 (1953)〕 provided a number of reports on hearsay reform, prior to the Civil Evidence Acts 1968 and 1972. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 ("2003 Act"), which went into force on 4 April 2005, introduced significant reforms to the hearsay rule, implementing (with modifications) the report by the Law Commission in (Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Hearsay and Related Topics ) (LC245), published on 19 June 1997. Previously, the Criminal Justice Act 1988 carved out exceptions to the hearsay rule for unavailable witnesses and business documents. These were consolidated into the 2003 Act. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hearsay in English law」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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