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Do Rules Of Evidence Apply (Only) In The Courtroom? Deceptive Interrogations In The United States And Germany, Jacqueline E. Ross

Jacqueline E Ross

Scholars who compare common law and civil law countries have long argued that civil law legal systems like Germany do not employ formal rules of evidence comparable to those which govern American courtrooms. The complex and restrictive nature of American evidentiary rules is said to be an artifact of the adversarial process and lay juries, which the legal system does not trust to evaluate evidence dispassionately. Civil law systems that commit fact-finding to mixed panels of lay and professional judges are said to have less need for formal rules of evidence that withhold information from decision-makers.

My essay challenges this …