Advanced Problems in Evidence

3 Credit Hours

This seminar will examine in much greater depth than possible in evidence courses select issues and areas in the field of evidence. This will include doctrinal areas such as burdens of proof and presumptions, the hearsay rule (including its constitutional manifestation in the confrontation clause), character evidence rules, as well as structural issues such as the implications of probability theory and other cognitive tools such as inference to the best explanation for understanding the nature of juridical proof specifically and the operation of the legal system more generally. A syllabus will be distributed but the students in the class will be able to suggest other topics that they would like to examine. The class will be informal and interactive. The grade will be based on a combination of class involvement and a research paper that meets the research writing requirement. Drafts will be discussed in class and a final draft submitted by the end of exam week. All reading materials will be provided by the instructor. The class will be valuable both for those who wish to become litigators and those with a jurisprudential interest in the law. As to the former, a deeper understanding of both the rules of evidence and the structure of the field of evidence will be invaluable. As to the latter, the seminar will examine some of the profound epistemological challenges the legal system faces. A prerequisite for this Seminar is Evidence.