Field of study is ; Sociology of Forensic Sciences and Technologies
The Construction of Expertise and Junk Science
The Sally Clark case raises the problem of how the expertise of the scientific expert gains authority. This lecture considers questions of scientific expertise and how this is treated in courts of law. This includes a consideration of the Daubert ruling (USA) which sets the standard for scientific evidence in the courtroom but which is, itself, inconsistent and problematic. Part of this story is the designation of bad or junk science. Huber claims that junk science involves the spurious claims by so-called expert witnesses to win astronomical judgments . Although originating in the legal arena where scientific witnesses are charged with allowing ideological or profit motives to cloud their judgment the term has rapidly become popular to describe dispute scientific judgments e.g. in medicine, global warming etc. This is an important part of the story of how the moral authority of scientists is negotiated and maintained in relation to forensic applications
Lecture and Seminar Readings
S.A. Cole, Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Thinking about Expert Evidence as Expert Testimony, Villanova Law Review, Volume 52, Number 4 (2007), pp. 803-842. (Available on Blackboard)
S. Jasanofff (1995) Science at the Bar: Law, Science and Technology in America, Harvard University Press, Chapter 3 “ The Law s Construction of Expertise.
K. R. Foster and P.W. Huber (1999) Judging Science: Scientific Knowledge and the Federal Courts, MIT Press, Chapter 1 “ Scientific Expertise
G. Edmond (ed) (2004) Expertise in Regulation and Law , Ashgate, Chapter 1 “ Experts and Expertise in Legal and Regulatory Settings (Edmond and Mercer), Chapter 8 “ Judging Facts: Managing Expert Knowledge in Legal Decision-making
Supplementary Reading
P.W Huber (1991) Galileo s Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom, Basic Books (not in Salford library). This is the classic, oft-cited book on junk science. Unfortunately, like many books on junk science it is not a scholarly work.
Seminar questions:
Is there a politics of junk science ?
this is all the instruction which i took from teacher, could you please read it carefully and focusing more on answering the question and cover it
also i will upload a power point from the lecture which i took
thanks
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