Introduction to Theory of Legal Evidence - Evidence in Legal Theory

Abstract

The volume “Theory of Legal Evidence: Evidence in Legal Theory” deals with theoretical and philosophical problems of legal evidence. The concept of evidence is expected to fill a number of distinct roles in science, philosophy, but also in legal theory and law. Some of these roles are complementary, while others stand in tension or have little in common. The title of this volume suggests two types of problems. Chapters authored by legal theorists experienced in different legal cultures, including Europe, but also Latin America and the United States, address those problems and the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of standards of proof and evidence-taking in law. This interdisciplinary approach is put to work in the present volume with regard to two specific dimensions of integration of legal scholarship. First, the authors differ in their theoretical profiles and methodologies but share the interdisciplinary and externally-integrating view of legal scholarship, calling for the inclusion of social sciences and humanities in order to grasp the complex picture of law in action, and evidence functioning within it. Second, the contributors track down the problem of evidence within argumentation and thinking of legislators, judges, lawyers and legal scholars as calling for a side by side internal integration of legal sciences, which has to do with rethinking the strengths and weaknesses of ‘the new evidence scholarship' movement. The chapters are ordered in such a way that they start with more general and theoretical ones questions, zooming in to more specific theoretical questions put in context with philosophical concepts, and finally end with practical questions of legal evidence as they occur during legal proceedings.