The Computer in Court

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=3 height=65 BGCOLOR="#990000" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="00f00410dvldzz.gif"> <div> The Computer in Court</div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=162 BGCOLOR="#999966" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personnel"><U>Personnel</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The DataFreeze Patent"><U>The DataFreeze Patent</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id32.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Electronic Commerce: Law and Practice 2n"><U>Electronic Commerce: Law and Practice 2nd edition</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id1.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Home Page"><U><B><IMG SRC="0d264190.gif" border=0 width="100" height="25" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=385 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> Back to the Future</div> <div> In 1981 Alistair Kelman and Richard Sizer wrote a book on the admissibility and reliability of computer evidence. At the time Alistair  was a young patents barrister who had been making his name in civil computer software litigation and Richard Sizer was Chairman of the  Professional Advisory Board of the British Computer Society. They had  previously written a Special Report for the British Computer Society with  the less than thrilling title "Admissibility and Reliability of Computer  Evidence in Civil and Criminal Cases" which had been submitted as evidence  of a need for a change in the law to the Home Office (and  which subsequently led to the inclusion of Section 69 regarding Computer  Evidence in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984). But back in 1981  they simply wanted to put their ideas before a wider public. </div> <bR> <div> Although at the time Alistair had virtually no practical experience in  criminal law he came up with the idea of an imaginary court case in which  a person was wrongly accused of a crime through the failure of his  employer to adopt proper data processing practices. Mindful of his then  lack of practical criminal experience and the fact that the imaginary "Misleading Cases" of Sir Alan Herbert were sometimes cited in foreign  jurisdictions as being actual judgements of the UK courts, Alistair set  about ensuring that there would be no such confusion by giving all the names of the characters in the imaginary case the names of up-market ice  creams in a branch of Baskin Robbins. </div> <bR> <div> <B>Hence welcome to the world of  Professor Chocolate Chip, Mr Honey-Bunny as Counsel for the Defence and Mr  Toffee-Almond, Counsel for the Prosecution.  The fictional case anticipated the general use of bar coding in retail  sales and the use of video in the courtroom. Subsequently in an  English Law Commission Report on Computer Evidence the analysis of the  issues set out by Alistair and Richard was cited with approval.  The book "The Computer in Court" is now out of print and, in consequence,  all rights have reverted to Alistair and Richard. With their permission  the LSE Computer Security Research Centre is pleased to be able to reproduce their drama in three acts - together with an Epilogue from  Alistair and Richard which explains "what happened next".  Please note that all the performing rights to this drama are reserved - contact Alistair for licensing information.</B></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=30 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="31"><B> </B><A HREF="id75.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Case of Grapefruit Sorbet"><U><B><IMG SRC="0041f150.gif" border=0 width="31" height="21" ALT="next" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><B>    </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="31"><B> </B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="21" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="31"></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>