ENGLISH

Truth, Error, and Criminal Law: An Essay in Legal Epistemology

By Larry Laudan

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2006
ISBN
9780511226403, 9780521861663, 0521861667
LCC
KD8464 .L38 2006,KF9756 .L38 2006
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1656324 bytes)
Series
Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Law
Edition
1st
Pages
256\256
Topic
Jurisprudence Law
Scanned
yes
Time added
2010-02-18 13:16:04

Description

This book treats problems in the epistemology of the law. Beginning with the premise that the principal function of a criminal trial is to find out the truth about a crime, Larry Laudan examines the rules of evidence and procedure that would be appropriate if the discovery of the truth were, as higher courts routinely claim, the overriding aim of the criminal justice system. Laudan mounts a systematic critique of existing rules and procedures that are obstacles to that quest. He also examines issues of error distribution by offering the first integrated analysis of the various mechanisms—the standard of proof, the benefit of the doubt, the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof—for implementing society’s view about the relative importance of the errors that can occur in a trial.

Similar books