Laws of Men and Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America

By Tal Golan, Professor Tal Golan, Golan

Book Overview

Are scientific expert witnesses partisans, or spokesmen for objective science? This ambiguity has troubled the relations between scientists and the legal system for more than 200 years. Modern expert testimony first appeared in the late eighteenth century, and while its use steadily increased throughout the nineteenth century, in cases involving everything from patents to X-rays, the respect paid to it steadily declined, inside and outside of the courtroom. With deep learning and wry humor, Tal Golan tells stories of courtroom drama and confusion and media jeering on both sides of the Atlantic, until the start of the twenty-first century, as the courts still search for ways that will allow them to distinguish between good and bad science.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674025806
• ISBN13: 9780674025806
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A brilliant and important book

We have all seen the dismaying spectacle of partisan scientific experts testifying in court in support of whichever side hires them. Pundits and politicians decry what they call "junk science" in the courts, suggesting sweeping judicial reforms. It's natural to assume that this is a new phenomenon. In this brilliant book, Golan shows that the place of scientific experts in the courtroom has been problematic and disputed for generations. Golan describes centuries of the complicated, changing relations between Anglo-American courts and scientific establishment. He demonstrates the ways in which each of these two central institutions in modern society - the legal systems and science - have consistently used their interaction to define themselves and each other. Each of these institutions is ostensibly devoted to generating truth, but each in a different way and with different criteria. Through studying the constant interplay of these two institutions, Dr. Golan sheds enormous light on the way each of them actually functions. It's incredible that so important, fruitful and suggestive a research project could have been overlooked until Golan wrote this book. This is one of the most important books in years in both history of science and history of law. Golan also writes beautifully, so it's a pleasure to read.