Brookbanks, Warren2025-02-192025-02-192024-06-01New Zealand Law Journal, June 2024. ISSN: 0028-8373 (Print), 163-165.0028-8373http://hdl.handle.net/10292/18695The notion of "effective participation" is now firmly embedded in the discourse around unfitness to stand trial. It signifies what is essential in determining whether a person has the capacity to be an engaged participant in criminal proceedings. Although it is a concept which has assumed a high profile in the jurisprudence of unfitness to stand trial, both in New Zealand and other English common law jurisdictions, it is still poorly understood. In particular, it is still unclear how "effective participation" engages with statutory and other non-statutory criteria for determining unfitness to stand trial. Does effective participation, in some sense, represent a "flowering" of what is implied in fitness to plead, or does it stand as an independent construct superimposed on statutory.NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version)1801 Law48 Law and legal studiesJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3316/informit.T2024073100015491449458935