Evidence Commons^™

Children's decision making ability is important in a number of areas in the law.  A child's competence to decide affects how her actions and opinions are evaluated in family court proceedings, dependency actions, delinquency cases, and civil suits.

2 studies investigated young children's understanding that as the retention interval increases, so do the chances that one will forget. In Study 1 (24 3-year-olds and 24 4-year-olds), 4-year-olds but not 3-year-olds understood that of 2 characters who simultaneously saw an object, the character who waited longer before attempting to find it would not remember where it was. In study 2 (24 3-year-olds and 24 4-year-olds), 4-year-olds but not 3-year-olds understood that of 2 objects seen by a character, the object that was seen a "long long time ago" would be forgotten and the object seen "a little while ago" …

In his article Professor Giannelli articulates quite clearly the confrontation issues that arise when the government seeks to introduce scientific evidence testimony in a criminal case." His work is helpful to our understanding of the problems that develop in the limited contexts of expert testimony and laboratory reports. It also provides valuable insights into the relationship between the Confrontation Clause and the hearsay rules. However, perhaps most important is the contribution that he makes to our understanding of the right of confrontation and our attempts to define that right and its limitations. While I find myself to be in general …