During the pre-trial phase of a case, the State, on behalf of the complainant, in a murder case may be required to present prima facie proof that a person was murdered, maybe by the defendant. Thus, prima facie evidence would include evidence that the deceased was murdered, that the victim seemed to die as a result of the murder, and that the defendant was capable of committing the murder. References Duty-based ethics don't suffer from this problem because they are concerned with the action itself - if an action is a right action, then a person should do it, if it's a wrong action they shouldn't do it - and providing there is a clear set of moral rules to follow then a person faced with a moral choice should be able to take decisions with reasonable certainty.

While dividing her time between Sydney and London, Miller is also working on a number of feature films (including an adaptation of Prima Facie that will star English actress and singer Cynthia Erivo) and TV series. She also has a two-book contract with Pan Macmillan.

But the novel feels heavy-handed in its treatment of gender roles and dynamics, as plot points and characters (some new, some expanded) are deployed to illustrate the different shades of toxic and benign masculinity and femininity. Tessa gets a niece, for example, who is born after the assault and becomes symbolic of Tessa’s youthful self and the next generation of women she feels a duty of care towards. man and, in general, every rational being exists as an end in himself and not merely as a means to be arbitrarily used by this or that will. In all his actions, whether they are directed to himself or to other rational beings, he must always be regarded at the same time as an end...

Tessa is a thoroughbred. A young, brilliant barrister. She has worked her way up from working class origins to be at the top of her game; prosecuting; cross examining and winning. An unexpected event forces her to confront the lines where the patriarchal power of the law, burden of proof and morals diverge. A prosecution merely needs to present reliable evidence in support of each element of a crime to establish a prima facie case. To achieve a conviction, the prosecution must show the defendant’s guilt on each factor beyond a reasonable doubt. What is the prima facie proof standard? In the play, Tessa is a young, brilliant barrister who has worked her way up from working-class origins to the top of her game: defending, cross-examining and winning. But when an unexpected event forces her to confront the patriarchal power of the law – where the burden of proof and morality diverge – she finds herself in a world where emotion and integrity are in conflict with the rules of the game.It's a remarkable achievement for a play that its writer thought would never get up – and a triumph for the 59-year-old, in the second act of her career after 15 years as a defence lawyer. Consequentialist theories don't pay direct attention to whether an act is carried out with good or bad intentions; most people think these are highly relevant to moral judgements.

Not much has happened to make Miller’s text less relevant and, although the play has sparked a review of consent law in the UK, it’s unlikely that there has been any material change to the statistics that the play hammers home. Depending on the jurisdiction, it’s estimated that between one in five and one in three women have been sexually assaulted; that only one in 10 rapes are reported to police. Of the ones that make it to trial, the conviction rate is less than 2%.Someone who follows Duty-based ethics should do the right thing, even if that produces more harm (or less good) than doing the wrong thing: When Prima Facie won the Olivier Award for best new play earlier this year, its Australian playwright, Suzie Miller, was caught off guard. This resonates strongly with disapproving comments such as "he's just using her", and it underpins the idea that "the end can never justify the means".

Under this form of ethics you can't justify an action by showing that it produced good consequences, which is why it's sometimes called 'non-Consequentialist'. Miller's novel is searing, vindicating and absolutely necessary both in the injustices it names and the emotions it evokes. I am grateful to her for writing it.' Sarah Krasnostein

See also

If the plaintiff does not present adequate evidence that a crime was committed or could have been committed by the defendant, the party being sued, then the judge can dismiss the case. The categorical imperative comes in two versions which each emphasise different aspects of the categorical imperative. Since I don't want there to be a rule that lets people break promises they make to me, I can conclude that it would be wrong for me to break the promise I have made. In the final chapter Phillips considers Ross's metaethics and epistemology. He broadly endorses the former, but is critical of the latter. The epistemology Ross inherited from Cook-Wilson and Prichard is, he argues, too dogmatic, and his claims about the special epistemic status of judgements of prima facie duty are indefensibly strong. The Latin phrase res ipsa loquitur means the object speaks for itself. The primary distinction between prima facie and res ipsa loquitur cases is that prima facie cases require numerous pieces of evidence to be valid and go to trial. The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur, on the other hand, states that the facts of the case are self-evident and do not require any supporting evidence to make them so. How do you establish a prima facie case?