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Some Observations on the Law of Evidence: Family Relations
Slesinger, Donald Hutchins, Robert
Slesinger, Donald
Hutchins, Robert
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Abstract
E XCEPT In cases of necessity' the wife was incompetent to testify for or against her husband at common law Coke suggests that the reason for the rule lay in the fact that husband and wife were one, and naturally could not be divided for the purposes of testimony Although the courts soon got beyond this doctrine, they insisted on the value of the rule. They argued that spouses, though perhaps not physically identical, were identical in interest. When disqualification by interest was removed, the judges bad to take other ground, and did so in Stapleton v Crofts.' There they decided that the true basis for the rule was the necessity of martial harmony and confidence.