Admissibility, reliability and common law epistemology

Ward, Tony (2018) Admissibility, reliability and common law epistemology. In: Forensic Science Evidence and Expert Witness Testimony: Reliability through Reform? Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 106-129. ISBN 9781788111027, 9781788111034

Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)

Abstract

This chapter argues that in some circumstances expert evidence should be admissible even though the validity of the scientific methods on which it is based has not been established. Such evidence should be admitted where there are good reasons to believe it has some probative value, forms part of a larger matrix of evidence, and the uncertainty resulting from its lack of validation is clearly acknowledged in the expert’s evidence-in-chief. As well as being supported by current legal doctrine this approach accords with the common law’s underlying ‘civic epistemology’ – the practices by which the polity determines what counts as publicly shared knowledge – and in particular with the ‘Davie principle’ by which scientific experts are obliged to make their knowledge claims accessible to, and assessable by, lay factfinders.

Item Type:	Book Section
Subjects:	M100 Law by area M200 Law by Topic
Department:	Faculties > Business and Law > Northumbria Law School
Depositing User:	Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2020 10:29
Last Modified:	17 Mar 2020 10:29
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/42504

Downloads