Foundations of Evidence Law

by Stein, Alex

• ISBN13: 9780198257363
• ISBN10: 0198257368
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This is the first book to systematically examine the underlying theory of evidence in Anglo-American legal systems. Stein develops a detailed and innovative theory which sets aside the traditional vision of evidence law as facilitating the discovery of the truth. Combining probability theory, epistemology, economic analysis, and moral philosophy, he argues instead that the fundamental purpose of evidence law is to apportion the risk of error in conditions of uncertainty.

Author Biography

Alex Stein is Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York.

Table of Contents

1. Groundwork	1	(33)
A. Preliminaries	1	(11)
B. Between the Moral and the Epistemological	12	(13)
C. What Does and Does not Belong to Evidence Law?	25	(6)
D. Free-Standing Evidential Rights?	31	(3)
2. Epistemological Corollary	34	(30)
A. Fundamentals	34	(5)
B. The Best Evidence Principle	39	(1)
C. Probability and Weight of Evidence	40	(16)
D. Scepticism vs. Rationalism	56	(8)
3. Understanding the Law of Evidence through Paradoxes of Rational Belief	64	(43)
A. Overview	64	(1)
B. Generalizations and Paradoxes	65	(4)
C. The Skeleton of the Argument	69	(4)
D. The Lottery and the Preface Paradoxes	73	(7)
E. Evidential Weight and Case-Specificity	80	(11)
F. The Principle of Maximal Individualization	91	(16)
4. Evidence Law: What is it For?	107	(34)
A. The Abolitionist Wave	108	(8)
B. Separating the Epistemological from the Moral	116	(2)
C. Breaking the Separation: Allocation of the Risk of Error	118	(15)
D. Allocating the Risk of Error by Evidence Law: Burdens of Proof, Exclusion, Pre-emption, Corroboration, and Cost-Efficiency	133	(8)
5. Cost-Efficiency	141	(31)
A. The Cost-Efficiency Doctrine: Minimizing the Aggregate Cost of Accuracy and Errors	141	(2)
B. Decision Rules	143	(11)
C. Process Rules	154	(3)
D. Credibility Rules	157	(10)
E. The Evidential Damage Doctrine	167	(5)
6. Allocation of the Risk of Error in Criminal Trials	172	(42)
A. The 'Equal Best' Standard	172	(6)
B. The Burden of Proof	178	(5)
C. Exclusion	183	(15)
D. Pre-emption	198	(10)
E. Corroboration	208	(1)
F. Discretion	208	(6)
7. Allocation of the Risk of Error in Civil Litigation	214	(31)
A. Fairness vs. Efficiency	214	(5)
B. Burden of Proof and Equality	219	(6)
C. Exclusion of Evidence as Corrective Equality	225	(13)
D. Equality and Pre-emption	238	(4)
E. Corroboration as Corrective Equality	242	(1)
F. Equality and Discretion	243	(2)
Index	245