A new book titled, A Practical Approach to Evidence for Judicial Officers: Common Law Sources and African Applications has been launched in Seychelles. The book was edited by Dr. Mathilda Twomey-Woods, a Justice of the Court of Appeal in Seychelles, alongside Joelle Barnes, Michelle St. Ange-Ebrahim and Jocelyn Hackett as collaborators.
The book launch had important dignitaries such as the President of the Republic of Seychelles, H.E Wavel Ramkalawan in attendance. Other important persons at the launch include; the Chief Justice of the Republic, former President of the Court of Appeal, Justices and Magistrates, and members of the Seychelles Bar.
Addressing the crowd, Dr. Twomey-Woods said, “In my role as a trial Judge in Seychelles, one of the difficulties I encountered was resolving challenges to the admissibility of evidence as quickly as they arose. This was important to ensure that trials proceeded efficiently yet fairly… This Manual spans the common-law origins of evidence law, its development and its applications in thirteen southern and East African countries in Africa: Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. All these countries share a colonial history which involved the introduction of British common-law principles of evidence law through cases, and colonial Evidence Acts or Criminal Procedure Codes…As you will see, there is much overlap in the content of the law as well as the development of the common law across the jurisdictions.”
Dr. Twomey-Woods described the Manual as a ‘labour of love’ and expressed her hope that it “will be a starting point for cross jurisdictional research.”
The President of the Republic, Mr. Wavel Ramkalawan, also in his capacity as Chancellor of the University of Seychelles, together with the Chief Justice Rony Govinden, attended the launch and both received the first copies of the book. In attendance was also Paula Van Dyck, a representative from USAID, the organization that funded the project.
Dr. Twomey-Woods is the author of ‘Legal Metissage in a Micro-Jurisdiction: The Mixing of Common Law and Civilian Law in Seychelles’, a book published in 2017 which she dedicated to her daughter Aoibhín (pronounced Eeveen, which in Irish means “little light”).