Prologue; 1. The origin of Roman-canon legal proof for criminal cases; 2. Epistemic foundations; 3. Orientation in the labryinth; 4. The two-eyewitnesses rule; 5. The probative impact of confessions; 6. The negative impact of legal proof; 7. Roman-canon rejection of persuasive evidence; 8. Evading the Roman-canon full proof standard; 9. Recapitulation; 10. Continental successors to Roman-canon legal proof; 11. Roman-canon legal proof and common law evidence; Epilogue.
Well-chosen negative legal proof rules can be useful procedural safeguards. They existed in both pre-modern and modern criminal procedures.
Mirjan Damaška is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is the author of over 100 articles and six books, including The Faces of Justice and State Authority(1986) and Evidence Law Adrift (1997).
'In Evaluation of Evidence, Mirjan Damaška takes on the essential
but ever difficult problem of finding the right amount of space
that fact-finders should be allowed in determining guilt and
innocence. He juxtaposes the relatively strict approach of
Roman-canon law, that limited evidence by 'affixing the value of
evidence in advance' with the broader freedom permitted by modern
law. He thus expands our contemporary thinking and thoughtfully
explores the likely challenges of the future.' Oscar G. Chase,
Russell D. Niles Professor of Law, New York University School of
Law
'Mirjan Damaška is the most learned and perceptive comparative law
scholar of the last fifty years. In this important book, he
questions standard views about how the rules of evidence were
understood in Roman-canon law and inquisitorial proceedings,
articulates an alternative historical account about it, and
provides key insights about how we should think about the
evaluation of evidence in our time. This book is indispensable for
anyone interested in the past, present and future of the law of
evidence and legal adjudication.' Máximo Langer, University of
California, Los Angeles School of Law
'The sixteenth century was a great century in the history of
European criminal procedure, and Prospero Farinacci was procedure's
most famous and important practitioner. Damaška has skillfully used
these cases to illustrate the procedural rules that Farinacci and
other jurists from Baldus to Carpzov developed and form the
foundation of modern criminal law. This book will be a valuable
supplemental text for criminal procedure law courses.' Ken
Pennington, The Catholic University of America
'The book is an outstanding historical research about some of the
most important topics concerning the evaluation of evidence in
criminal law. Damaška's view is original, based upon a wide and
deep analysis of the historical sources. Evaluation of Evidence is
an important contribution to the history of judicial systems, in
particular the evolution of evidentiary rules and the function of
courts, with main reference to the inquisitorial model that
dominated the Western world for several centuries.' Michele
Taruffo, University of Pavia, Italy
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
