Evaluation of Evidence

Mirjan Damaška is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the International Academy of Comparative Law. He is the author of over 100 articles and six books, including The Faces of Justice and State Authority(1986) and Evidence Law Adrift (1997).

• Prologue; 1. The origin of Roman-canon legal proof for criminal cases; 2. Epistemic foundations; 3. Orientation in the labryinth; 4. The two-eyewitnesses rule; 5. The probative impact of confessions; 6. The negative impact of legal proof; 7. Roman-canon rejection of persuasive evidence; 8. Evading the Roman-canon full proof standard; 9. Recapitulation; 10. Continental successors to Roman-canon legal proof; 11. Roman-canon legal proof and common law evidence; Epilogue.

'In Evaluation of Evidence, Mirjan Damaška takes on the essential but ever difficult problem of finding the right amount of space that fact-finders should be allowed in determining guilt and innocence. He juxtaposes the relatively strict approach of Roman-canon law, that limited evidence by 'affixing the value of evidence in advance' with the broader freedom permitted by modern law. He thus expands our contemporary thinking and thoughtfully explores the likely challenges of the future.' Oscar G. Chase, Russell D. Niles Professor of Law, New York University School of Law