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

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.

Author: Larry Laudan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 04/28/2008
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.90w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780521730358

About the Author
Laudan, Larry: - Larry Laudan is Principal Investigator at the Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and president-elect of the Peirce Society. He is the author of many books, most recently Beyond Positisms and Relativism, and The Book of Risks.

This title is not returnable