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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Implied Assertion Doctrine Applied To Legislative History, Noah Marks, Jessica Ranucci
The Implied Assertion Doctrine Applied To Legislative History, Noah Marks, Jessica Ranucci
Faculty Scholarship
This Article derives a new approach towards the use of legislative history to interpret statutes by adapting and applying the law of evidence. Courts use legislative history as hearsay evidence: out-of-court statements used for the truth of the matter asserted. Evidence law includes many exceptions under which hearsay becomes admissible. One such exception, the implied assertion exception, can be applied to courts' use of legislative history. Under this framework, legislative history can illuminate the interpretive enterprise, while many of the problems identified by opponents of legislative history are mitigated. After presenting the development of the implied assertion doctrine in evidence …
Narrative, Truth, And Trial, Lisa Kern Griffin
Narrative, Truth, And Trial, Lisa Kern Griffin
Faculty Scholarship
This Article critically evaluates the relationship between constructing narratives and achieving factual accuracy at trials. The story model of adjudication— according to which jurors process testimony by organizing it into competing narratives—has gained wide acceptance in the descriptive work of social scientists and currency in the courtroom, but it has received little close attention from legal theorists. The Article begins with a discussion of the meaning of narrative and its function at trial. It argues that the story model is incomplete, and that “legal truth” emerges from a hybrid of narrative and other means of inquiry. As a result, trials …