Demeanour Evidence on Trial: A Legal and Literary Criticism
by Justice Gilles Renaud

Demeanour evidence, a form of real evidence, is routinely admitted in court proceedings throughout the world. As a result, judges, juries and decision makers of all kinds are invited to weigh the importance of such highly subjective elements as the tone of voice or the eye movements of witnesses in the assessment of their truthfulness and reliability.
This book, founded upon an exhaustive review of legal writers and literary sources, is an attempt to study in a systematic fashion whether the reliance on demeanour evidence is misplaced fundamentally and whether the probative value of such evidence is in many circumstances more apparent than real. Indeed, it is suggested that four main obstacles block the path to the reception of such information and that unless they are overcome, principled justice requires the exclusion of such proposed evidence: Firstly, demeanour evidence is highly subjective, involving judgments of strangers who are thrust into an unnatural setting, against a background assumption that there is a ‘normal’ range of reaction to highly stressful situations that is applicable to all individuals. Second, demeanour evidence assumes that the outward appearance accurately reflects an individual’s state of mind or emotional state, overlooking the capacity of individuals to adopt “a false face to hide what the false heart doth know.” Thirdly, demeanour evidence is beyond the capacity of appellate courts to review for the most part. Lastly, demeanour embraces so much expressive behaviour as to be internally contradictory, beyond objective definition and incapable of measured evaluation.

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