Date: 14Sep 2016
This presentation explores the idea of “Evidence and Proof” (E & P) as an interdisciplinary subject rooted in the logic of inferential reasoning. It explains how E & P extends beyond traditional (common law) doctrinal legal sources, and why this should matter, in different (but overlapping) ways, to law students, law teachers, scholars and legal practitioners. Building on previous research, in particular, by Twining and Wigmore, and also incorporating behavioural science perspectives, the seminar will offer illustrations and discuss practical techniques for “taking facts seriously” in legal education and litigation practice. It is inspired by a more comprehensive vision, or ideal, of “forensic science”, which centrally incorporates without being limited to forensic science evidence and expert witness testimony.
Paul Roberts is Professor of Criminal Jurisprudence in the University of Nottingham School of Law, and an Adjunct Professor in Law at UNSW, Sydney, and in the Institute for Evidence Law and Forensic Science, CUPL, Beijing. His teaching and research focus on criminal evidence and procedure, incorporating philosophical, socio-legal, international and comparative perspectives and with a strong accent on methodology and interdisciplinarity. His extensive publications include: Roberts and Zuckerman, Criminal Evidence (OUP, 2/e 2010); Hunter, Roberts, Young and Dixon (eds), The Integrity of Criminal Process (Hart, 2016); Roberts (ed), Theoretical Foundations of Criminal Trial Procedure (Ashgate, 2014); Roberts (ed), Expert Evidence and Scientific Proof in Criminal Trials (Ashgate, 2014); Roberts and Hunter (eds), Criminal Evidence and Human Rights (Hart, 2012); and Roberts and Redmayne (eds), Innovations in Evidence and Proof (Hart, 2007). Roberts has been visiting professor or invited lecturer at CUPL, Beijing; IIUM Malaysia; the University of Warsaw; the Jagiellonian University in Krakow; the University of Gottingen; Oxford University; University College London; and the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg), RSA. He has served as a consultant to the English and Scottish Law Commissions, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Forensic Science Regulator, and is a council member of the International Association of Evidence Science.
