‘Clive has dedicated his 35 year career to unearthing the truth.’ So begins the preface to the autobiography of Clive Driscoll, a former Detective Chief Inspector with the Metropolitan Police (Driscoll, 2015). Driscoll is probably best known for leading the investigation that resulted in the conviction of two of the men responsible for the death of Stephen Lawrence. Criminal investigations and the entire criminal process culminating in the criminal trial are regularly characterized as a pursuit of the truth:

In Jones v National Coal Board [1957] 2 QB 55 Denning LJ (as he then was) identified that the judicial role ‘above all, is to find out the truth’ (p 63). The same point was made by the US Supreme Court in Tehan v United States ex rel. Shott 382 US 406 (1966): ‘The basic purpose of a trial is the determination of the truth’ (p 416). It was reiterated by Marvin E. Frankel, who sat as a judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York between 1965 and 1978 and was a key figure in the development of sentencing guidelines in the United States, who wrote: ‘Trials occur because there are questions of fact. In principle, the paramount objective is the truth’ (Frankel, 1975, p 1033).

In Jones v National Coal Board [1957] 2 QB 55 Denning LJ contrasted the adversarial system developed by common law countries with the inquisitorial system: ‘In the system of trial which we have evolved in this country, the judge sits to hear and determine the issues raised by the parties, not to conduct an investigation or examination on behalf of society at large, as happens, we believe, in some foreign countries’ (p 63). The case concerned a claim brought by the widow of a coal miner killed in a mining accident.