Law Commons^™

Banning Autonomous Killing, Mary O'Connell

Mary Ellen O'Connell

Scientific research on fully autonomous weapons systems is moving rapidly. At the current pace of discovery, such fully autonomous systems will be available to military arsenals within a few decades, if not a few years. These systems operate through computer programs that will both select and attack a target without human involvement after the program is activated. Looking to the law governing resort to military force, to relevant ethical considerations, as well as the practical experience of ten years of killing using unmanned systems (drones), the time is ripe to discuss a major multilateral treaty banning fully autonomous killing. Current …

The Admissibility Of Bayesian Likelihood Ratios, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

As someone once said, “there are lies, damned lies and statistics.” Anyone who has tried a case where statistics are presented to the jury knows how powerful statistics can be. Jurors are generally not versed in statistics and are vulnerable to being misled. Ironically, judges may not be much better at identifying valid statistical analyses as opposed to bogus ones.

In this Criminal Justice column we will look at statistical analysis and its place in the courtroom. We will look at a recent decision of the British Courts and the implications for that type of thinking on American jurisprudence. To …

Book Review: Carl Cranor, Toxic Torts: Science, Law, And The Possibility Of Justice, David Caudill

David S Caudill

Carl F. Cranor’s Toxic Torts: Science, Law, and the Possibility of Justice is a sustained, comprehensive argument that the Daubert gatekeeping regime has tilted the playing field against injured plaintiffs in toxic tort litigation. More generally, Cranor joins those who argue that the Daubert regime has not fared well in practice. Complex scientific evidence is not handled well in trials because scientific methods, data, and inferential reasoning are not well understood by gatekeeping judges. Cranor’s goal is to help solve this problem by offering a detailed description of the patterns of reasoning, evidence collection, and inference in nonlegal scientific settings. …

Speaking Science To Law, Deborah Hussey Freeland

Deborah M. Hussey Freeland

involving a strong scientific consensus, the powerful qualities of scientific knowledge are easily lost in translation. Moreover, even prominent scientists who are committed to providing accurate information to legal fact-finders may suffer reputational harm simply for participating in an adversarial process.

This article analyzes the connection between law and science through the expert witness from the perspectives of epistemology and cross-cultural communication, focusing on the distinct ways in which scientists and lawyers know, value and express their knowledge. When a lawyer meets with a scientific expert witness, more confusion attends their interaction than either likely realizes. Linguistic translation is necessary--but …

Keeping It Real: Using Facebook Posts To Teach Professionalism And Professional Responsibility, Anna P. Hemingway

Anna P. Hemingway