Evidence of Bad Character in Scots Criminal Law

On 20 November 2007 the Scottish Ministers invited the Scottish Law Commission to consider, inter alia, ‘the law relating to the admissibility of evidence of bad character or previous convictions, and of similar fact evidence’. Against that background, this article looks to examine the role of similar fact evidence in Scots law, as well as the circumstances in which evidence actual evidence of the bad character of an accused may be led, and the purposes for which it may be led. Instances where the author believes the law to be less than rational will be highlighted, and suggestions made as to how the law might be recast on a rational basis