The lead article, which describes U.S. law on children's competence to testify, discusses the elements of testimonial competence, the requirement of personal knowledge of the relevant facts, and the child's need to take an oath or affirmation. The second paper examines the construct of competency in right-to-die cases. The third paper examines the therapeutic effects of using court review to deal with a mental patient's refusal to take psychotropic drugs. Another paper critiques the normative and conceptual foundations of the legal duty of psychotherapists to protect the public and third parties from a "dangerous" client. The paper argues that existing legal doctrines that mandate the duty to warn are not based in precise and sound psychological empirical data and concepts. The practices of mental health professionals in complying with child abuse reporting statutes while respecting the rights of the client and the confidentiality of the counselor-client relationship are examined in another paper. An examination of legal standards in emotional injury litigation is followed by a study that analyzes whether a plaintiff may recover damages due to the negligent infliction of emotional distress to a bystander. Remaining papers consider the effects of using psychologists as consultants to police hostage negotiation teams and the impact of using Ziskin's principles of cross- examination to rebut expert psychological testimony. For individual articles, see NCJ-143068-75. References and data accompany articles.