ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the rules relating to competence and compellability of witnesses. Witnesses who suffer from cognitive or mental disabilities that impact upon their ability to communicate have traditionally presented problems for the courts. Under the youth justice and criminal evidence act 1999, witnesses in criminal cases who suffer from cognitive impairment or a learning disability are subject to the same test for competency as children. The common law rules relating to the competence and compellability of the accused's spouse were complex and confused. The 1990s witnessed a considerable shift in thinking, with both policymakers and the judiciary increasingly expressing unease about the longstanding assumption that children were inherently less reliable as witnesses than adults. In the case of witnesses of a different religion, the Act provides that the oath shall be administered in any lawful manner.
