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Can There Be a Science of Proof? A Cross-Atlantic Dialogue (1898–1947)

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Theory of Legal Evidence - Evidence in Legal Theory

Part of the book series: Law and Philosophy Library ((LAPS,volume 138))

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Abstract

Between the late nineteenth century and the 1950s, the project of establishing a science of proof was shared by a generation of criminologists, psychologists and lawyers specializing in evidence law. Their ambition was to develop theoretical and practical knowledge of the analysis and evaluation of evidence in the courts, drawing on new knowledge established in the then-emerging fields of social psychology and forensic science and technology. All this was combined with an effort to provide judges with tools capable of guiding the rigour of their reasoning with evidence. This project, which is fundamentally interdisciplinary and breaks with a dogmatic orientation in legal analysis, was made possible by an important dialogue on both side of the Atlantic. The circulation of knowledge engaged in the science of evidence was remarkable, both in Europe and between Europe and the United States, as illustrated by the figures of Wigmore and Gorphe. The conditions that allowed the development of a science of proof project to flourish disappeared after the War and this project would not be taken on by a new generation. Research in these areas continued separately in an increasingly fragmented disciplinary landscape. This article retraces this history and sheds light on the reasons for the weakening, and the recomposition, of the science of proof at the end of the Second World War.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Many aspects of Wigmore’s career confirm his interest in a diversity of fields, inside and outside the law, and the variety of his readings. See Twining (1985), Riles (2001), Simonin (2007).

  2. 2.

    The same holds true of G. F. Arnold’s Psychology applied to legal evidence (1906) which built on psychology to come to conclusions and advice as regards evidence in court: “This work does not claim to be an original treatise on either Psychology or Law. The author has merely aimed at applying the conclusions of the former to legal evidence and other doctrines and constructions of legal writers” (vii).

  3. 3.

    As Gross states, “the study of the human soul as psychology, has for its subject the whole stream of conscious life and for its aim the discovery of the occurrence and relation of the laws of human thought” (1911, p. 105).

  4. 4.

    This journal was edited from 1927 to 1939 by the Institut Pelman, which contributed in the 1920s to the elaboration of methods for the individual training of mental capacities.

  5. 5.

    “Though it is not the lawyer’s problem to take an attitude with regard to philosophical skepticism, his work becomes essentially easier through the study of Hume’s doctrines” (p. 129).

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  1. CNRS, CTAD, University Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France

    Olivier Leclerc

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  1. Olivier Leclerc
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  1. University of Passau, Passau, Germany

    Verena Klappstein

  2. Legal Theory and Philosophy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland

    Maciej Dybowski

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Leclerc, O. (2021). Can There Be a Science of Proof? A Cross-Atlantic Dialogue (1898–1947). In: Klappstein, V., Dybowski, M. (eds) Theory of Legal Evidence - Evidence in Legal Theory. Law and Philosophy Library, vol 138. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83841-6_2

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