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Full-Text Articles in Law
Too Many Probabilities: Statistical Evidence Of Tort Causation, David W. Barnes
Too Many Probabilities: Statistical Evidence Of Tort Causation, David W. Barnes
Law and Contemporary Problems
Medical scientific testimony is often expressed in terms of two different probabilities: 1. The increased probability of harm if a person is exposed, for example, to a toxin. 2. The observed relationship is an artifact of the experimental method. This article demonstrates that neither probability, taken alone or together, measures whether the "preponderance of the evidence" test is met.
Scientific Models Of Human Health Risk Analysis In Legal And Policy Decisions, Douglas Crawford-Brown
Scientific Models Of Human Health Risk Analysis In Legal And Policy Decisions, Douglas Crawford-Brown
Law and Contemporary Problems
The quality of scientific predictions of risk in the courtroom and policy arena rests in large measure on how the two differences between normal practice and the legal/policy practice of science are reconciled. This article considers a variety of issues that arise in reconciling these differences, and the problems that remain with scientific estimates of risk when these are used in decisions.
Culture And Causality: Non-Western Systems Of Explanation, William M. O'Barr
Culture And Causality: Non-Western Systems Of Explanation, William M. O'Barr
Law and Contemporary Problems
The logic of some other systems of thought, explanation, and prediction are discussed, in order to find what can be learned about the sociocultural contexts and their functions in other cultures. The truths they may represent are about the human quest to understand causes and effects.
The Swine Flu Vaccine And Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Study In Relative Risk And Specific Causation, David A. Freedman, Philip B. Stark
The Swine Flu Vaccine And Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Case Study In Relative Risk And Specific Causation, David A. Freedman, Philip B. Stark
Law and Contemporary Problems
This article discusses the role of epidemiologic evidence in toxic tort cases, focusing on relative risk. Whether specific causation can be inferred if a relative risk is above 2.0 is discussed. The object is to explore the scientific logic behind intuitions of relative risk.
Scientific Ignorance And Reliable Patterns Of Evidence In Toxic Tort Causation: Is There A Need For Liability Reform?, Carl F. Cranor, David A. Eastmond
Scientific Ignorance And Reliable Patterns Of Evidence In Toxic Tort Causation: Is There A Need For Liability Reform?, Carl F. Cranor, David A. Eastmond
Law and Contemporary Problems
As a first step to preserving the central aims of tort law, courts will need to recognize the wide variety of respectable, reliable patterns of evidence on which scientists themselves rely for drawing inferences about the toxicity of substances. Courts may also need to take further steps to address the woeful ignorance about the chemical universe. This may necessitate changes in the liability rules.
Causation And The Law: Preemption, Lawful Sufficiency, And Causal Sufficiency, Richard Fumerton, Ken Kress
Causation And The Law: Preemption, Lawful Sufficiency, And Causal Sufficiency, Richard Fumerton, Ken Kress
Law and Contemporary Problems
This article briefly describes the normative/nonnormative distinction, and how one might invoke this distinction to locate a nonnormative dimension of actual causation. After briefly introducing Richard Wright's concept of a necessary element in a set of conditions for an effect, the article notes ambiguities in the critical concepts of necessity and sufficiency that he deploys. The article suggests the most plausible interpretation of Wright's use of different modal concepts.
Of Cherries, Fudge, And Onions: Science And Its Courtroom Perversion, David W. Peterson, John M. Conley
Of Cherries, Fudge, And Onions: Science And Its Courtroom Perversion, David W. Peterson, John M. Conley
Law and Contemporary Problems
The thesis of this article is that the Supreme Court decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s focus on the scientific method, however rigorously applied, invites certain classes of abuses. There are instances in which evidence can be made to look more scientific by a process that in fact and substance makes is utterly unscientific.
Contingent Fees And Tort Reform: A Reassessment And Reality Check, Elihu Inselbuch
Contingent Fees And Tort Reform: A Reassessment And Reality Check, Elihu Inselbuch
Law and Contemporary Problems
No abstract provided.
The International Criminal Court: Possibilities For Prosecutorial Abuse, Alfred P. Rubin
The International Criminal Court: Possibilities For Prosecutorial Abuse, Alfred P. Rubin
Law and Contemporary Problems
The attempt to create an international criminal court assumes that in all important ways the international legal order is similar to the municipal legal orders with which US citizens are familiar, but with regard to the criminal law, that assumption is simply not true. Rubin discusses two potential fundamental discrepancies between the international legal order and an hypothesized "typical" municipal legal order as would exist under the current statute for the International Criminal Court.