Art of a Lawyer – (Cross Examination, Advocacy, Courtmanship)

This book is a repository of enriching and enlightening articles on ‘art of advocacy, courtmanship, lawyering and cross-examination of witness’, by top notch legal luminaries from the Bench and the Bar, in addition to those from administrative and army functionaries, from America, England, Africa, Pakistan and of course India. I, as revising editor, was given the liberty of doing away with contents of the book which, may not be relevant to the contemporary times or considered obsolete. Having gone through the book in minute details, I find no room to substantiate that any of the articles, except two, can be dispensed with, though some of the articles by legal luminaries from America have dealt at length with the duty to and by the Jury in Court, as the articles also contain guidelines for behavioural attitude by advocates and lawyers, in course of Court proceedings, though the practice of Jury in Indian Courts has been done away with. Thus, the articles as ‘Pole Star’ have been and shall remain relevant for all times to come, having regard to the fact that the basic character and principles necessary for advocacy, courtmanship and lawyering can never change with times. Five articles by the renowned jurist, ‘Justice V. R. Krishna Iyer’, under the captions ‘Adjudication in Trial Courts’, ‘Dynamic Lawyering, Juristic Engineering and Ethical Standards — Making of a Good Lawyer’, ‘Free Legal Aid and Poor Litigants’, ‘Free Legal Aid Code-A Social Service Measure, and ‘The Bar Must Promote in Court’, have been included in the instant edition. A new chapter entitled ‘Golden Rules of Cross-Examination’ has been introduced in the instant edition. The chapter on ‘Classes of Witnesses and as to the Mode of Cross-Examining them’, has been improved and enhanced with additional matter of case laws under the topics ‘The Lying Witness’, ‘The Nervous Witness’ and ‘The Stupid Witness’, with introduction of the types of witnesses with case laws wherever applicable, namely, ‘Accomplice Witness’, ‘Biased or Interested or Partisan Witness’, ‘Child Witness’, ‘Exaggerating and Enthusiastic Witness’, ‘Deaf and Dumb Witness’, ‘Eye-witnesses’, ‘Guilty Witness’, ‘Party as Witness’, ‘Ignorant or Illiterate Witness’, ‘Police Witness’, ‘Court Witness’, ‘Pious Witness (Priests and Clergymen)’, ‘Conscientious Witness’, ‘Unwilling Witness’, ‘Excited witness’, and ‘Hypnotized Witness’. It is expected that this edition in its 59th year of publication will continue to render its dominant guidance and service in the arena of advocacy for the practising advocates, as well as serving as a sermon for, and building up the character of, the enterprising lawyers.