Increasing use is being made of various types of scientific evidence in court. The
general requirement for the admissibility of such evidence is relevance. Although
expert evidence is considered to be opinion evidence, it is admissible if it can assist the
court to decide a fact in issue; provided that it is also reliable. In South Africa, the
initial wide judicial discretion to either admit or exclude unconstitutionally obtained
evidence, has developed into a more narrowly defined discretion under the final
Constitution. Examples of scientific evidence, namely, DNA evidence, fingerprints,
psychiatric evidence, bite-mark evidence and polygraph evidence are considered and
problems inherent in the presentation of such evidence in courts in various jurisdictions
are highlighted. An investigation of the presentation and evaluation of evidence in
both the accusatorial and inquisitorial systems seems to indicate that the adversarial
procedure has a marked influence on the evaluation of evidence / Criminal and Procedural Law / LL.M. (Law)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/16774 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Faurie, Annari |
| Contributors | Terblanche, S. S. (Stephanus Salomon), 1959- |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (130 leaves) |
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