The expert witness in criminal law : a comparative study and proposals for reform

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the expert witness in criminal law. A good number of articles as well as books have been written about evidence in general, but hardly any literature exists regarding the topic of the expert witness in particular. Perhaps, this is so because the function of the expert witness prior to and during the trial often goes practically unnoticed. Yet the expert witness is of paramount importance if the interests of justice are to be safe-guarded. This indeed is what I set out to show in this thesis. In this thesis the different areas of the subject under discussion as found in our system are first compared with their counter-part in other systems; and then where applicable, reforms are suggested for our system.