Exclusionary rules of evidence: rationale and European Union Law

Analysis, comparison, and critique are the actions that constitute comparative studies. This work, which focuses on exclusionary rules of evidence, employs legal comparison between the Italian and Spanish systems for three purposes: (a) to understand the rationale behind the exclusion of evidence from proceedings; (b) to apply the conclusions drawn to European law, to determine whether the latter (b.1) requires the exclusion of certain evidence or (b.2) conversely obliges the national judge to disregard the rule; (c) finally, to use the results of the comparison to assess whether judicial balancing is an appropriate solution, even within the European context.