Interesting Law Article: The Nature and Purpose of Evidence Theory
Abstract:
The past few decades have seen an explosion in theoretical and empirical scholarship
exploring the law of evidence. From a variety of disciplines and
distinct methodological perspectives, this work has illuminated
important issues regarding types of evidence, legal rules and doctrine,
the reasoning processes of judges and juries, the structure of proof,
and the normative considerations underlying these various issues. This
Article takes up the theoretical project writ large. Exploring the
landscape of evidence scholarship, the Article examines a number of
methodological and meta-theoretical questions: What would a successful
evidentiary theory look like? By what criteria should assess such a
theory? What is the purpose of such theorizing? What is the
relationship between the theoretical and empirical projects? In
exploring these questions, the Article identifies criteria by which to
evaluate theorizing in this area.
To that end, the Article
first identifies two considerations that underlie any theoretical
account of the evidentiary proof process and its components: factual
accuracy and allocating the risk of erroneous decisions. Next, it
articulates and defends general criteria by which to evaluate
theoretical accounts in evidence scholarship in light of these
considerations. Finally, it applies the general
criteria to evaluate two theoretical accounts — a probabilistic
conception and an explanatory conception — and concludes that the
probabilistic conception fails and the explanatory conception succeeds
in light of the theoretical criteria. Along with clarifying evidence
theory, the Article also clarifies the relationship between theoretical
and empirical scholarship in this area.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 52
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