The exclusionary rule is an American anomaly among the world’s legal systems

Evidence

The United States is unique in its reliance on the exclusionary rule as a means of dealing with police misconduct. Great Britain, Canada, and other common-law countries admit all reliable evidence at trial but permit suits for damages against police officers alleged to have committed illegal acts. No civil-law country disciplines its police by excluding illegally seized evidence. Indeed, for most of the nation’s history, U.S. courts permitted the introduction of all probative evidence at trial. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1834

Categorization

• XREF: Bears on the exclusionary rule’s justification debate and the comparative ‘remedy’ question for Fourth Amendment violations raised in this course. — connects to: A tradition of law as external restraint on rulers is distinctive to the West — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 189
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether damage suits or internal discipline would deter police misconduct as effectively as suppression does.

Broader Connections

• A tradition of law as external restraint on rulers is distinctive to the West #expands (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 189