Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T19:23:06.334Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

On the Epistemic Authority of Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2012

Abstract

This paper uses Carl Ginet's concept of “disinterested justification” to identify the boundaries of the epistemic authority of courts. It claims that courts exercise this authority only in the “interest-free” zone, in which their determinations of disputed facts’ probabilities can be made and justified on epistemic grounds alone. This is not the case with the “interest-laden” domain, where courts allocate risks of error under conditions of uncertainty. This domain is controlled by the risk-allocating evidentiary rules: burdens of proof, corroboration, hearsay, opinion, character, and others. These rules are driven by moral and political, rather than epistemic, reasons. Their role is to allocate the risk of error among plaintiffs, defendants, and prosecution by setting forth probability thresholds for findings of fact and the criteria for adequacy of the evidence upon which those findings can be made.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Cohen, L. Jonathan. 1983. “Freedom of Proof.” A.R.S.P. Archiv für Rechts und Sozialphilosophie 16: 121.Google Scholar
Ginet, Carl. 1975. Knowledge, Perception, and Memory. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Keren, Arnon. 2007. “Epistemic Authority, Testimony and the Transmission of Knowledge.” Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology 4(3): 368–81.Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1985. “Authority and Justification.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 14: 329.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Scott J. 2002. “Authority.” In Coleman, J. & Shapiro, S. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law, pp. 382439. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stein, Alex. 2005. Foundations of Evidence Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar