ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the admissibility of the accused’s previous good or bad character in evidence. As a starting point, it is worth underlining that the rules relating to this topic are clouded by a number of defi nitional issues. For the most part, as far as its usage within the law of evidence is concerned, ‘character’ refers to the tendency of a person to act, think or feel in a particular way. ‘Disposition’ and ‘propensity’ are alternative terms with the same meaning, and you will fi nd that they are widely used in case law and academic commentary on the subject. Thus a person with previous convictions for violence may be described as being of a ‘violent disposition’ or having a ‘propensity towards violence’, whereas someone of good character may be described as ‘a person of integrity’.
