The Right to Test Witness Evidence
With respect to the right to test witness evidence, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantee has a role in ensuring that the adversarial character of the proceedings is upheld. The defence must be given a fair chance to challenge evidence against the accused and to bring its own evidence. This must be granted under the same conditions as those applicable to the prosecution, which serves the general principle of equality of arms. This chapter discusses the origins, purpose, and character of the guarantee, along with the proximity to the establishment of the facts, the relevance of the statement as evidence, the model of full compliance with the guarantee, the problems arising with the guarantee, definition of the term ‘witness’, the right to question witnesses at different stages of the criminal proceedings, the exercise of the right to test witness evidence, limitations of the right to test witness evidence, the right to call witnesses, and the equality-of-arms aspect of this right.
Keywords: evidence, witnesses, criminal proceedings, European Convention on Human Rights, defence, accused, equality of arms, compliance
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .