Saks published in 'Episteme'

Professor Michael Saks, of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, recently authored an article as part of a symposium issue on Evidence and Law in the current edition of Episteme, a journal of social epistemology published by Edinburgh University Press.

The article, "Explaining the Tension Between the Supreme Court's Embrace of Validity as the Touchstone of Admissibility of Expert Testimony and Lower Courts' Seeming Rejection of Same," notes that lower courts often have refused to properly test the claims of expertise offered by those purporting to use forensic science to opine on cases.

"By lopsided majorities, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a series of cases, persistently commanded the lower courts to condition the admission of proffered expert testimony on the demonstrated validity of the proponents' claims of expertise," Saks writes. "In at least one broad area - the so-called forensic sciences - the courts below have largely evaded the Supreme Court's holdings."

To read the full article (PDF version), click here.

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law