Evidence Matters: Science, Proof, and Truth in the Law (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781107698345)

Is truth in the law just plain truth - or something sui generis? Is a trial a search for truth? Do adversarial procedures and exclusionary rules of evidence enable, or impede, the accurate determination of factual issues? Can degrees of proof be identified with mathematical probabilities? What role can statistical evidence properly play? How can courts best handle the scientific testimony on which cases sometimes turn? How are they to distinguish reliable scientific testimony from unreliable hokum? The dozen interdisciplinary essays collected here explore a whole nexus of such questions about science, proof, and truth in the law. With her characteristic clarity and verve, in these essays Haack brings her original and distinctive work in theory of knowledge and philosophy of science to bear on real-life legal issues. She includes detailed analyses of a wide variety of cases and lucid summaries of relevant scientific work, of the many roles of the scientific peer-review system, and of relevant legal developments.

Author: Susan Haack
ISBN-10: 1107698340
ISBN-13: 9781107698345
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 07/28/2014
Pages: 446
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.00d