Question: Outline the development of the Law of Evidence with reference to the evidence of spouses.
Answer: To be compellable, a witness must first be competent. A witness is competent where he can be lawfully called to give evidence, and is compellable if he has a legal obligation to do so . As a general rule, all witnesses are compellable for all parties. In civil proceedings, the only exception to this is the non-compellability of the former spouse of a deceased person . Therefore, the discussion will focus on the more contentious area of spouse compellability within the criminal law. A spouse refers to a person who is lawfully married . Until 1984, the common law ruled that a spouse was not competent, and thus non-compellable, to testify against her husband. The rationale behind this was the fundamental objection to the potential disruption of marital harmony and the risk of perjur......(short extract)
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Details: - Mark: 70% | Course: Law of Evidence | Year: 2nd/3rd | Words: 2016 | References: No | Date written: February, 2006 | Date submitted: October 13, 2008 | Coursework ID: 38
