Product Description
Joint winner of the 2005 Walter Owen Book Prize (first edition)
Expert Evidence in Criminal Law: The Scientific Approach by Alan D. Gold is the first and only Canadian book on expert evidence entirely from a scientific perspective.
The book is written in plain language, making it easily accessible to lawyers and judges approaching the topic for the first time. At the same time, it contains all the principles and knowledge needed to expose bogus experts and junk science and to reduce inflated expert evidence to its proper valuation.
Everything from forensic identification evidence, including fingerprints and toolmarks, to psychological and psychiatric evidence, such as post traumatic stress syndrome, are discussed and evaluated according to the rules of science and the deficiencies and weaknesses of the evidence are demonstrated in detail.
The book has been thoroughly updated in this new edition to reflect developments in both the law and science.
Foreword
Preface to the Second Edition
Preface to the First Edition
CHAPTER 1: Introduction
CHAPTER 2: The U.S. Revolution
CHAPTER 3: The Admissibility of Expert Opinion Evidence
CHAPTER 4: Science: Some Basic Concepts
CHAPTER 5: Science and the Forensic Sciences
CHAPTER 6: Science and Psychiatric and Psychological Evidence
CHAPTER 7: Science and Syndromes, Profiles, and Indicators
CHAPTER 8: Science and “Consistent with” Evidence
CHAPTER 9: Science and Social Science Evidence
CHAPTER 10: Problematic Procedural Issues
CHAPTER 11: Proposals for Change
Table of Cases
Index
About the Author
“Expert Evidence in Criminal Law: The Scientific Approach is without doubt… the most valuable book for criminal counsel and the judiciary to have been printed in the last few years.”
Hon. Gilles Renault, For the Defence, January 2004
“The reference to criminal law in the title of this book may be misleading. The book is essential reading for all civil litigators too.”
Earl A. Cherniak, Q.C.
