ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes to analyse the contents of the packages to which the labels ‘orality’ and ‘immediacy’ are variously applied and examines the broad lines of the English rules on hearsay and public justice. It presents in concrete terms and at a fairly low level of abstraction a list of guiding principles about the general part of criminal procedure and evidence which are widely agreed to be important. The principles of orality and immediacy are subjects which writers on criminal procedure in Germany and Holland have analysed earnestly and at length. Insofar as secret and proactive policing does produce evidence rather than mere background information it is often evidence that is usable without creating any possible conflict with the principles of orality and directness. The chapter also examines how far the several principles are in conflict with the practices of secret and proactive policing. Secret and proactive policing and the principles of orality and immediacy largely operate in different spheres.
