Evidence Matters
Science, Proof, and Truth in the Law

Susan Haack brings her distinctive work in theory of knowledge and philosophy of science to bear on real-life legal issues.

Susan Haack (Author)

9781107698345, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 28 July 2014

446 pages
22.6 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.59 kg

'Evidence Matters combines and updates essays, chapters, and books previously written, published and presented at numerous workshops, symposia, colloquia, and lectures, including mathematical faculties, medical, and law schools. … A copy of this book would be an excellent addition to the reading collection of every justice, judge, and lawyer. Its relevance and insights have application wherever investigation desires to justify belief.' Rafael Silva, The Champion

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? These interdisciplinary essays explore such questions about science, proof, and truth in the law. With her characteristic clarity and verve, 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.

1. Epistemology and the law of evidence: problems and projects
2. Epistemology legalized: or, truth, justice, and the American way
3. Legal probabilism: an epistemological dissent
4. Irreconcilable differences? The troubled marriage of science and law
5. Trial and error: two confusions in Daubert
6. Federal philosophy of science: a deconstruction - and a reconstruction
7. Peer review and publication: lessons for lawyers
8. What's wrong with litigation-driven science?
9. Proving causation: the weight of combined evidence
10. Correlation and causation: the 'Bradford Hill Criteria' in epidemiological, legal, and epistemological perspective
11. Risky business: statistical proof of specific causation
12. Nothing fancy: some simple truths about truth in the law.

Subject Areas: Comparative law [LAM], Law [L], Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge [HPK], Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology [HPJ]