Is scientific information misused by this country's court system and lawmakers? Today more than ever before, lawyers, politicians, and government administrators are forced to wrestle with scientific research and to employ scientific thinking. The results are often less than enlightened. In Legal Alchemy, David Faigman explores the ways the American legal system incorporates scientific knowledge into its decision making. Praised by both legal and scientific communities when it first appeared in hardcover, Legal Alchemy shows how science has been used and misused in a variety of settings, including • The Courtroom—from the O. J. Simpson trial to the Dow Corning silicone breast implant lawsuit to landmark cases such as Roe v. Wade. • The Legislature—where Congress uses scientific information to help enact legislation about clean air, cloning, and government science projects like the space station and the superconducting super collider. • Government Agencies—who use science to determine policy on a variety of topics, from regulating sport utility vehicles to reintroducing gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park. As Faigman describes these and other important cases, he provides disturbing evidence that many judges, juries, and members of Congress simply don't understand the science behind their decisions. Finally, he offers suggestions on how the science and legal professions can overcome their miscommunication and work together more effectively.
David Faigman's Constitutional Fictions is the first book-length examination of the role of fact-finding in constitutional cases. Because the role of facts is central to the day-to-day realities of constitutional law, Faigman provides an extraordinarily important analysis of a subject that has been largely ignored by constitutional scholars. To show how contemporary facts play into constitutional analysis, Faigman examines some of the most controversial subjects of the late twentieth century, including physician-assisted suicide, abortion, sexual predators, free speech, and privacy. The Constitution is popularly thought of as a static document that embodies fundamental values and foundational principles of governance. However, the values and principles that the Constitution embodies must be applied to the circumstances and challenges of changing times. Constitutional Fictions explains how contemporary facts should be incorporated into constitutional decisions, thus allowing the Constitution to endure for the ages.
From the American Revolution to the genetic revolution, to race and abortion rights, legal expert David L. Faigman’s Laboratory of Justice examines the U.S. Supreme Court’s uneasy attempts to weave science into the Constitution. Suppose that scientists identify a gene that predicts that a person is likely to commit a serious crime. Laws are then passed making genetic tests mandatory, and anyone displaying the gene is sent to a treatment facility. Would the laws be constitutional? In this illuminating history, Laboratory of Justice: The Supreme Court’s 200-Year Struggle to Integrate Science and the Law, legal scholar David L. Faigman reveals the tension between the conservative nature of the law and the swift evolution of scientific knowledge. The Supreme Court works by precedent, embedding the science of an earlier time into our laws. In the nineteenth century, biology helped settle the “race question” in the famous Dred Scott case; not until a century later would cutting-edge sociological data end segregation with Brown v. Board of Education. In 1973, Roe v. Wade set a standard for the viability of a fetus that modern medicine could render obsolete. And how does the Fourth Amendment apply in a world filled with high-tech surveillance devices? To ensure our liberties, Faigman argues, the Court must embrace science, turning to the lab as well as to precedent. “Faigman takes the Supreme Court to task for persistently failing to inquire into the merits of the scientific evidence in the cases before it.”—Daniel J. Kevles, Legal Affairs “Faigman is one attorney who hasn’t shied away from insisting that judges stay up to speed with scientific knowledge.”—The Christian Science Monitor
David Faigman's Constitutional Fictions is the first book-length examination of the role of fact-finding in constitutional cases. Because the role of facts is central to the day-to-day realities of constitutional law, Faigman provides an extraordinarily important analysis of a subject that has been largely ignored by constitutional scholars. To show how contemporary facts play into constitutional analysis, Faigman examines some of the most controversial subjects of the late twentieth century, including physician-assisted suicide, abortion, sexual predators, free speech, and privacy. The Constitution is popularly thought of as a static document that embodies fundamental values and foundational principles of governance. However, the values and principles that the Constitution embodies must be applied to the circumstances and challenges of changing times. Constitutional Fictions explains how contemporary facts should be incorporated into constitutional decisions, thus allowing the Constitution to endure for the ages.
From the American Revolution to the genetic revolution, to race and abortion rights, legal expert David L. Faigman’s Laboratory of Justice examines the U.S. Supreme Court’s uneasy attempts to weave science into the Constitution. Suppose that scientists identify a gene that predicts that a person is likely to commit a serious crime. Laws are then passed making genetic tests mandatory, and anyone displaying the gene is sent to a treatment facility. Would the laws be constitutional? In this illuminating history, Laboratory of Justice: The Supreme Court’s 200-Year Struggle to Integrate Science and the Law, legal scholar David L. Faigman reveals the tension between the conservative nature of the law and the swift evolution of scientific knowledge. The Supreme Court works by precedent, embedding the science of an earlier time into our laws. In the nineteenth century, biology helped settle the “race question” in the famous Dred Scott case; not until a century later would cutting-edge sociological data end segregation with Brown v. Board of Education. In 1973, Roe v. Wade set a standard for the viability of a fetus that modern medicine could render obsolete. And how does the Fourth Amendment apply in a world filled with high-tech surveillance devices? To ensure our liberties, Faigman argues, the Court must embrace science, turning to the lab as well as to precedent. “Faigman takes the Supreme Court to task for persistently failing to inquire into the merits of the scientific evidence in the cases before it.”—Daniel J. Kevles, Legal Affairs “Faigman is one attorney who hasn’t shied away from insisting that judges stay up to speed with scientific knowledge.”—The Christian Science Monitor
Is scientific information misused by this country’s court system and lawmakers? Today more than ever before, lawyers, politicians, and government administrators are forced to wrestle with scientific research and to employ scientific thinking. The results are often less than enlightened. In Legal Alchemy, David Faigman explores the ways the American legal system incorporates scientific knowledge into its decision making. Praised by both legal and scientific communities when it first appeared in hardcover, Legal Alchemy shows how science has been used and misused in a variety of settings, including • The Courtroom—from the O. J. Simpson trial to the Dow Corning silicone breast implant lawsuit to landmark cases such as Roe v. Wade. • The Legislature—where Congress uses scientific information to help enact legislation about clean air, cloning, and government science projects like the space station and the superconducting super collider. • Government Agencies—who use science to determine policy on a variety of topics, from regulating sport utility vehicles to reintroducing gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park. As Faigman describes these and other important cases, he provides disturbing evidence that many judges, juries, and members of Congress simply don’t understand the science behind their decisions. Finally, he offers suggestions on how the science and legal professions can overcome their miscommunication and work together more effectively.
Since 1993, Supreme Court precedent has asked judges to serve as gatekeepers to their expert witnesses, admitting only reliable scientific testimony. Lacking a strong background in science, however, some judges admit dubious scientific testimony packages by articulate practitioners, while others reject reliable evidence that is unreasonably portrayed as full of holes. Seeking a balance between undue deference and undeserved skepticism, Caudill and LaRue draw on the philosophy of science to help judges, juries, and advocates better understand its goals and limitations.
Bridging law, genetics, and statistics, this book is an authoritative history of the long and tortuous process by which DNA science has been integrated into the American legal system. In a history both scientifically sophisticated and comprehensible to the nonspecialist, David Kaye weaves together molecular biology, population genetics, the legal rules of evidence, and theories of statistical reasoning as he describes the struggles between prosecutors and defense counsel over the admissibility of genetic proof of identity. Combining scientific exposition with stories of criminal investigations, scientific and legal hubris, and distortions on all sides, Kaye shows how the adversary system exacerbated divisions among scientists, how lawyers and experts obfuscated some issues and clarified others, how probability and statistics were manipulated and misunderstood, and how the need to convince lay judges influenced the scientific research. Looking to the future, Kaye uses probability theory to clarify legal concepts of relevance and probative value, and describes alternatives to race-based DNA profile frequencies. Essential reading for lawyers, judges, and expert witnesses in DNA cases, The Double Helix and the Law of Evidence is an informative and provocative contribution to the interdisciplinary study of law and science.
A flexible and engaging casebook, Evidence: Cases, Commentary, and Problems focuses on core concepts and central controversies in evidence law, presented through tightly edited cases, stimulating commentary from a wide range of perspectives, and carefully crafted problems. The Fifth Edition, while as streamlined and teachable as its predecessors, includes excerpts from more than fifty new cases and twenty new articles, fresh problems and enhanced editorial material, and three entirely new sections: one on machine-generated proof, one on digital forensics, and one on authenticating electronic evidence. There is new, up-to-date material on sexual assault cases, DNA evidence, social science evidence, privileges, judicial notice, hearsay, confrontation, “other crimes” evidence, and other key topics. New to the Fifth Edition: New sections on machine-generated proof, digital forensics, and authenticating electronic evidence New materials on confrontation and hearsay, character evidence in sexual assault and child molestation cases, DNA evidence, social science evidence, “other crimes” evidence, and other key topics Excerpts from more than 50 new cases and 20 new articles New problems and editorial material throughout Professors and students will benefit from: Flexible structure that allows the book to be taught cover-to-cover in a four-unit, one-semester class, but also can be abridged or rearranged to suit course length and instructor’s preferences. Comprehensive coverage with a wide range of perspectives. Text that is written with clarity and concision and includes well-selected and tightly edited cases. A balanced mix of cases, commentary, and problems covering relevance, hearsay, character evidence, impeachment, privilege, expert testimony, and authentication. Well-written introductory materials that identify key issues, important distinctions, and common sources of confusion.
Introduction to and survey of the field of law and society. Includes interdisciplinary perspectives on law from sociology, criminology, cultural anthropology, political science, social psychology, and economics.
With the popularity of crime dramas like CSI focusing on forensic science, and increasing numbers of police and prosecutors making wide-spread use of DNA, high-tech science seems to have become the handmaiden of law enforcement. But this is a myth,asserts law professor and nationally known expert on police profiling David A. Harris. In fact, most of law enforcement does not embrace science—it rejects it instead, resisting it vigorously. The question at the heart of this book is why. »» Eyewitness identifications procedures using simultaneous lineups—showing the witness six persons together,as police have traditionally done—produces a significant number of incorrect identifications. »» Interrogations that include threats of harsh penalties and untruths about the existence of evidence proving the suspect’s guilt significantly increase the prospect of an innocent person confessing falsely. »» Fingerprint matching does not use probability calculations based on collected and standardized data to generate conclusions, but rather human interpretation and judgment.Examiners generally claim a zero rate of error – an untenable claim in the face of publicly known errors by the best examiners in the U.S. Failed Evidence explores the real reasons that police and prosecutors resist scientific change, and it lays out a concrete plan to bring law enforcement into the scientific present. Written in a crisp and engaging style, free of legal and scientific jargon, Failed Evidence will explain to police and prosecutors, political leaders and policy makers, as well as other experts and anyone else who cares about how law enforcement does its job, where we should go from here. Because only if we understand why law enforcement resists science will we be able to break through this resistance and convince police and prosecutors to rely on the best that science has to offer. Justice demands no less. Visit the author's blog here.
A pioneering reference for the community of people with mental retardation, their families, employers, lawyers, researchers, and policy makers. Based on empirical research and legal analysis, examines the antidiscrimination protections set out in the US act regarding employment. Especially considers
Buy a new version of this textbook and receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Connected eBooks provide what you need most to be successful in your law school classes. Learn more about Connected eBooks. A problem-based Evidence coursebook that presents the Federal Rules of Evidence in context, illuminates the rules’ underlying theories and perspectives, and provides a fully updated and systematic account of the law in a student-friendly hornbook-style format. The material is accompanied with straightforward and systematic explanations. Lively discussion and interesting problems (rather than numerous appellate case excerpts) engage students in understanding the principles, policies, and debates that surround evidence law. The book also contains self-assessment sections in each chapter that teach students how to identify and resolve legal issues and succeed in the final exam. To sum up: this book stands out as “all in one”: it gives students of evidence an up-to-date comprehensive account of the law; it explains complex evidentiary issues in a straightforward and systematic fashion; and it also tells students what their exam will look like and how to succeed in it. New to the Seventh Edition: A new case file to introduce numerous evidence issues throughout the semester, with spin-off problems in each chapter. Updated doctrine, including application of evidence rules to electronic evidence and the online environment. Professors and students will benefit from: An opening case file introducing students to the process of analyzing evidence in terms of the essential elements of a legal dispute, serving as an effective introduction to much of the course to follow A wide range of real-world problems exposes students to the depth and complexity of the Rules of Evidence Every chapter addresses basic rules interpretation, essential policy, and connects theory to practice Assessment problems (modeled on exam questions) at the end of each chapter, including answers with explanations Teaching materials Include: Updated and streamlined Teacher’s Manual, including sample syllabi for both 4- and 3-credit courses, transition guide for each chapter, teaching guidance, and answers to all the problems in the book Problems Supplement that includes most problems deleted from prior editions
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