COMPETENCE AND COMPELLABILITY: IS CHILD EVIDENCE ADMISSIBLE?

COMPETENCE AND COMPELLABILITY: IS CHILD EVIDENCE ADMISSIBLE?
ABSTRACT

Determination of lawsuits is highly dependent on these availability of evidence. In law, every person is a competent witness in any judicial proceeding unless otherwise prevented by the law. And every compellable witness is a competent witness as the court will not compel anyone to give evidence, if he is incompetent to do so. However, it is not every competent witness that is compellable in court. Competence does not imply ‘reliable,’ thus a witness may legally speaking not be able to give evidence for several reasons. For example, the witness may be a child who is too young that he/she cannot understand the questions put to him or give rational answers to them. Compellability on the other hands deals with the question whether as a matter of law, witnesses can be obliged to give evidence when they do not wish to do so but there are some circumstances in which competent witnesses cannot be obliged to give evidence against their will. This long essay therefore aims at analyzing the competency and compellability of a child to give evidence as a witness with respect to how it affects availability and admissibility of evidence. Chapter one of the long essay which is introductory explains the objectives, focus, extent and limitation of the study as well as the methodology employed in carrying out the research. Chapter two gives an insight as to the elements of the topic by explaining what Competency and Compellability of a witness imply. In chapter three the long essay considers who a child is in law and the conditions for the admissibility of his testimonies. While chapter four sheds light on issues relating to compellability of a child witness and the effect of compelling an incompetent child witness. Lastly, chapter five summarizes the findings of the research and made far reaching recommendations were offered as a forward It is strongly believed that if recommendations made herein are taken seriously and reflected in proposed amendment to the Act, the would go along way in improving the state of the law in that direction.

CHAPTER 1

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1.0: INTRODUCTION

Issues relating to competence and compellability of child evidence in Nigerian law of evidence are though becoming a recurrence and popular with the availability of case laws and statutes regulating the subject matter, yet it is not out of point to assert that it has not received its deserved attention1. However, the law of Evidence remains the channel for proper regulation of the legal process. And evidence has been defined as: Any specie of proof or probative matters legally  resented at the trial of an issue, by the act of the parties and through the medium of witness records, documents, exhibits, concrete objects for the purpose of inducing belief in the mind of the court or  judiciary as to their contention. 1 Black H.O, Blacks Law Dictionary(6th ed.Paul Minn West Publishing Co,1979)689. At Common Law, it is not all evidence given in court that may be held admissible, for instance before a child can give evidence which will be admitted, such child must be and compellable witness. Therefore, a proper attention will be given to the definition and meaning of competence and compellability, its nature and principles and the position it occupies in the law of evidence. Also worthy of addressing is who child is in law? And the conditions which such child must satisfy before he becomes a competent and compellable witness. Importantly, as giving of evidence by a child may have some negative  effects, it has been advocated that there should be a systemized way of receiving a child’s evidence with proper consideration of the situation of the child and determination of whether the child is induced by a third party. Also, attention will be paid to the effect of giving evidence in court and why most children may feel reluctant to give evidence in court as well as the issues risk of hysterical invention, childish imagination and collisions which may be inherent in the evidence of a child in Nigerian courts.

1.1.0: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

This long essay focuses on competency and compellability of a child to give evidence before Nigerian courts. The meaning, general principles, importance, provisions of the Evidence Act as well as the exceptions to the general rule in Section 155(1) of the Evidence Act2 would be examined. The essay would also explain who a child is in law, the testimony of such a child in civil and criminal proceedings as well as the conditions for the admissibility of such evidence. More importantly, the long essay examines the effects and defects of wrongfully admitting evidence by a child in court. 

Department: Law
Format: Microsoft Word

Chapters: 1 - 5, Preliminary Pages, Abstract,  Bibliography.
Delivery: Email

No. of Pages: 90

Price: 3000 NGN

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