Evidence, Proof, and Facts

Peter Murphy is Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law and currently Defence Counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He is Editor-in-Chief of Blackstone's Criminal Practice and author of Murphy on Evidence (Blackstone, 2000).

• Preface ; Table of Works Represented, with Abbreviations Used ; Evidence, Proof, and Facts: Introductory Essay ; 1. The Concept of Evidence and the Law of Evidence ; SECTION 1: WHAT IS EVIDENCE? ; Bentham, Rationale ; Schum, Foundations ; SECTION 2: DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAW OF EVIDENCE ; Thayer, Preliminary Treatise ; Holdsworth, History ; Twining, Rethinking Evidence ; SECTION 3: ARE EXCLUSIONARY RULES OF EVIDENCE NEEDED? ; Bentham, Rationale ; Stephen, Report ; SECTION 4: THE PHILOSOPHY UNDERLYING THE LAW OF EVIDENCE: OPTIMISTIC RATIONALISM ; Twining, Theories ; 2. Logic and Rhetoric ; SECTION 1: LOGIC, DEDUCTIVE REASONING, AND THE SYLLOGISM ; Aristotle, Topics ; Aristotle, Prior Analytics ; Mill, System ; SECTION 2: REJECTION OF THE SYLLOGISM AS A SCIENTIFIC METHOD ; Bacon, Novum Organum ; Hume, Enquiry ; Schum, Foundations ; SECTION 3: LOGIC, INDUCTIVE REASONING, AND INFERENCES FROM EVIDENCE ; Schmidt, The Influence of the Legal Paradigm on the Development of Logic ; Mill, System ; SECTION 4: LOGICAL FALLACIES ; Mill, System ; SECTION 5: DIALECTIC AND RHETORIC ; Aristotle, The Art of Rhetoric ; Plato, Gorgias ; Plato, Phaedrus ; 3. Judicial Reasoning About Facts ; SECTION 1: RELEVANCE ; Stephen, Digest ; US Federal Rule of Evidence 401 ; Bentham, Rationale ; Schum, Foundations ; Keynes, Treatise ; SECTION 2: DIRECT AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE ; Bentham, Rationale ; SECTION 3: THE PROCESS OF JUDICIAL REASONING ; Thayer, Preliminary Treatise ; Wigmore, Science ; SECTION 4: PROBATIVE VALUE AND WEIGHT ; Bentham, Rationale ; Keynes, Treatise ; SECTION 5: GENERALIZATIONS ; Hume, Enquiry ; Bentham, Rationale ; Mill, System ; 4. Causation ; SECTION 1: PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS FOR THEORY OF CAUSE AND EFFECT ; Aristotle, Physics ; Locke, Essay ; Hume, Treatise ; Hume, Enquiry ; Mill, System ; SECTION 2: CAUSE AND EFFECT AS BASIS FOR INFERENCE FROM EVIDENCE ; Hart and Honore, Causation ; Schum, Foundations ; SECTION 3: LEGAL APPLICATIONS OF CAUSATION ; Hart and Honore, Causation ; 5. The Standard of Proof ; SECTION 1: RELATIONSHIP OF INDUCTIVE REASONING TO STANDARDS OF PROOF ; Cohen, The Probable and the Provable ; SECTION 2: PROOF BY A PREPONDERANCE OF THE EVIDENCE ; Rhesa Shipping Co SA v. Edmunds (The Popi M) ; T.N.T. Management Pty. Ltd. v. Brooks ; Cohen, The Probable and the Provable ; SECTION 3: PROOF BEYOND REASONABLE DOUBT ; Shapiro, Beyond Reasonable Doubt ; Cohen, The Probable and the Provable ; SECTION 4: DECISION THEORY IN RELATION TO STANDARDS OF PROOF ; Kaplan, Decision Theory and the Factfinding Process ; Tribe, Trial by Mathematics: Precision and Ritual in the Legal Process ; 6. Theories of Probability ; SECTION 1: PROBABILITY THEORIES GENERALLY ; Locke, Essay ; Hume, Treatise ; Bentham, Rationale ; Keynes, Treatise ; SECTION 2: PROBABILITY APPLIED TO HUMAN CONDUCT AND CREDIBILITY ; Keynes, Treatise ; Eggleston, Evidence, Proof, and Probability ; SECTION 3: THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIFFERENCE ; Cohen, Introduction ; 7. Probability: Issues of Mathematics ; SECTION 1: MATHEMATICAL PROBABILITY CALCULUS ; Mill, System ; Schum, Foundations ; Cohen, Introduction ; SECTION 2: REVISION OF PROBABILITY ESTIMATES IN LIGHT OF NEW EVIDENCE: BAYES' RULE ; Schum, Foundations ; Bayes, Essay ; SECTION 3: MATHEMATICS IN THE COURTROOM ; People v. Collins ; R v. Adams (No. 2) ; 8. Probability: Mathematical and Non-Mathematical Models ; SECTION 1: MON-MATHEMATICAL PROBABILITY MODELS ; Mill, System ; Keynes, Treatise ; Cohen, Introduction ; Cohen, The Probable and the Provable ; SECTION 2: PASCAL OR BACON? THE GREAT DEBATE ; Tribe, Trial by Mathematics: Precision and Ritual in the Legal Process ; Kaye, The Laws of Probability and the Laws of the Land ; 9. Alternative Epistemologies of Evidence ; SECTION 1: CHANCE AND ACAUSAL CONNECTIONS ; Aristotle, Physics ; Mill, System ; SECTION 2: THE OLDER MODES OF PROOF ; Holdsworth, History ; Hammurabi, Code ; Manu, Laws ; Supakar, The Law of Evidence in Ancient India ; SECTION 3: A WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE ; Harmon, Etchings on Glass ; APPENDIX 1: INFERENCE NETWORKS AND THE CHARTING OF EVIDENCE ; Wigmore, The Problem of Proof ; APPENDIX 2: SOME COMMONLY USED HYPOTHETICALS ; Index