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The Open University

Expert evidence and forensic science in the courtroom

The Open University via OpenLearn

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Overview

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This free course gives an overview of the law of expert evidence, including practice and procedure, the duties and liabilities of experts, the question of how non-experts can adjudicate between the views of experts, and the increasing mathematisation of scientific evidence. The various issues are finally brought together in a case study of one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice in recent years.This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course W250 Evidence law and related to the Open University qualification Bachelor of Laws (Honours) (LLB).

Syllabus

  • Introduction
  • Learning outcomes
  • 1 Rationale for expert evidence
  • 2 Admissibility of expert evidence
  • 2.1 Relevance
  • 2.2 Assistance
  • 2.3 Reliability
  • 2.4 Expertise
  • 2.5 Hearsay
  • 3 Duties and responsibilities of an expert
  • 3.1 Hired guns and bias
  • 3.2 The Civil Procedure Rules
  • 3.3 Liability and immunity of experts
  • 3.3.1 Criminal liability
  • 3.3.2 Civil liability and immunity
  • 3.3.3 Disciplinary proceedings
  • 4 How non-experts can scrutinise experts
  • 4.1 Other means of scrutinising experts
  • 5 Numbers
  • 5.1 The prosecutor’s fallacy
  • 5.2 Partial solutions
  • 6 When science meets law
  • 6.1 An introduction to Bayesianism
  • 6.2 Bayes’ Rule in practice: the likelihood ratio
  • 6.3 The problem with Bayes’ Rule
  • 6.3.1 Bayesian fundamentalism
  • 6.3.2 Bayesian skepticism
  • 7 Expert evidence case study
  • 7.1 The Sally Clark case
  • 7.2 The statistical evidence
  • 7.3 The medical evidence
  • 7.4 The aftermath
  • Conclusion
  • Exploring further
  • References
  • Acknowledgements

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3 rating at OpenLearn based on 10 ratings

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