Legal Evidence and Proof: Statistics, Stories, Logic

As a result of recent scandals concerning evidence and proof in the administration of criminal justice a€“ ranging from innocent people on death row in the United States to misuse of statistics leading to wrongful convictions in The Netherlands and elsewhere a€“ inquiries into the logic of evidence and proof have taken on a new urgency both in an academic and practical sense. This study presents a broad perspective on logic by focusing on inference not just in isolation but as embedded in contexts of procedure and investigation. With special attention being paid to recent developments in Artificial Intelligence and the Law, specifically related to evidentiary reasoning, this book provides clarification of problems of logic and argumentation in relation to evidence and proof. As the vast majority of legal conflicts relate to contested facts, rather than contested law, this volume concerning facts as prime determinants of legal decisions presents an important contribution to the field for both scholars and practitioners.

Hendrik Kaptein is Senior Lecturer in Jurisprudence, Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid van de Universiteit Leiden. He has published extensively in both English and Dutch. Henry Prakken is lecturer in artificial intelligence at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University and Professor of Law and ICT at the Faculty of Law, University of Groningen. His main research interests concern artificial Intelligence and law, logical foundations of common-sense reasoning and the application of argumentation in procedures for dispute resolution, group decision making and negotiation. He has published widely on these and related areas. Bart Verheij is a university lecturer/researcher (in Dutch: universitair docent) at the Artificial Intelligence department of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. His research has focused on defeasible argumentation, legal argumentation, argumentation support software and argumentation schemes, often using formalism as a tool of analysis. Bart Verheij is a university lecturer in the Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Groningen. His research has focused on defeasible argumentation, legal argumentation, argumentation support software and argumentation schemes, often using formalism as a tool of analysis.