Truth, error and criminal law: an essay in legal epistemology / Larry Laudan.

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

26314

Judicial error -- Great Britain.

Judicial error -- United States.

Jurisprudence.

1. Thinking about error in the law --2. The unraveling of reasonable doubt --3. Fixing the standard of proof --4. Innocence, the burden of proof, and the puzzle of affirmative defenses --5. Evaluating evidence and procedures --6. Silent defendants, silent witnesses, and lobotomized jurors --7. Confessions, poison fruit, and other exclusions --8. Double jeopardy and false acquittals: letting felons and judges off the hook? --9. Dubious motives for flawed rules: the clash between values.

Laudan examines the rules of evidence and procedure that would be appropriate if the discovery of the truth were 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 analysing the operation of the standard of proof, benefit of the doubt, presumption of innocence and burden of proof.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

0521861667

[xv], 238 p.