Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Civil procedure (3)
- Litigation and civil procedure (3)
- Criminal law and procedure (2)
- Jurisprudence (2)
- Trials (2)
-
- Appellate procedure (1)
- Bias (1)
- Bureaucracy (1)
- Constitutional law (1)
- Courts (1)
- Deception (1)
- Demeanor (1)
- Expert witnesses (1)
- Fact witnesses (1)
- Fact-finding (1)
- Hearings (1)
- International courts and tribunals (1)
- Judges (1)
- Justice (1)
- Law enforcement/Criminal justice (1)
- Legal history (1)
- Legal philsophy (1)
- Negotiation (1)
- Practice and procedure (1)
- Presence (1)
- Procedural justice (1)
- Procedure (1)
- Testimony (1)
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Evidence
An Economic Analysis Of Fact Witness Payment, Eugene Kontorovich, Ezra Friedman
An Economic Analysis Of Fact Witness Payment, Eugene Kontorovich, Ezra Friedman
Faculty Working Papers
In this paper we discuss the disparate treatment of perceptual (''fact'') witnesses and expert witnesses in the legal system. We highlight the distinction between the perceptual act of witnessing and the act of testifying, and argue that although there might be good reasons to regulate payments to fact witnesses, the customary prohibition on paying them for their services is not justified by reference to economic theory. We propose considering a court mediated system for compensating fact witnesses so as to encourage witnessing of legally important events.We construct a simple model of witness incentives, and simulate the effects of several possible …
What Will We Lose If The Trial Vanishes?, Robert P. Burns
What Will We Lose If The Trial Vanishes?, Robert P. Burns
Faculty Working Papers
The number of trials continues to decline andfederal civil trials have almost completely disappeared. This essay attempts to address the significance of this loss, to answer the obvious question, "So what?" It argues against taking a resigned or complacent attitude toward an important problem for our public culture. It presents a short description of the trial's internal structure, recounts different sorts of explanations, and offers an inventory of the kinds of wounds this development would inflict.
Hearings, Mark Spottswood
Hearings, Mark Spottswood
Faculty Working Papers
This article explores a constantly recurring procedural question: When is fact-finding improved by a live hearing, and when would it be better to rely on a written record? Unfortunately, when judges, lawyers, and rulemakers consider this issue, they are led astray by the widely shared—but false—assumption that a judge can best determine issues of credibility by viewing the demeanor of witnesses while they are testifying. In fact, a large body of scientific evidence indicates that judges are more likely to be deceived by lying or mistaken witnesses when observing their testimony in person than if the judges were to review …
The Death Of The American Trial, Robert P. Burns
The Death Of The American Trial, Robert P. Burns
Faculty Working Papers
This short essay is a summary of my assessment of the meaning of the "vanishing trial" phenomenon. It addresses the obvious question: "So what?" It first briefly reviews the evidence of the trial's decline. It then sets out the steps necessary to understand the political and social signficance of our vastly reducing the trial's importance among our modes of social ordering. The essay serves as the Introduction to a book, The Death of the American Trial, soon to be published by the University of Chicago Press.