Stories About Science in Law

David S. Caudill, J.D., Ph.D. is the Arthur M. Goldberg Family Chair in Law at Villanova University School of Law where he teaches scientific evidence, property, and legal ethics. He is also a senior fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he teaches expert evidence and entertainment law. Professor Caudill is the author of over 100 articles, essays, book chapters, and book reviews, and the author of five books, including No Magic Wand: The Idealization of Science in Law (2006) and Lacan and the Subject of Law: Towards a Psychoanalytic Critical Legal Theory (1997). He is a frequent speaker at conferences on the law of evidence, legal ethics, law and literature, and science studies.

• Preface and Acknowledgements; Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Law-and-Literature, Literature-and-Science, and a Hybrid Law-Literature-Science Field of Study; Chapter 3 Ramón y Cajal: Hard SF for Lawyers; Chapter 4 Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People: The Public Understanding of Science in Law; Chapter 5 Idealized Images of Science in Film: The Expert Witness in Trial Movies; Chapter 6 “Faction”: Truman Capote, Legal Ethics and In Cold Blood; Chapter 7 Historical Narratives: Mad Alchemists, Experts Attacking Experts, and the Crisis in Forensic Science; Chapter 8 Conclusion: A New Picture of Science in Law;

'In a bold and innovative step beyond the conventions of law and literature, Caudill deftly traces the parallels between images of scientific expertise and the framing of science in law. Drawing examples from science fiction, "lab lit" and futuristic film, Stories About Science In Law manages gainfully to trace the surprising extent to which law exists in the shadow of science.' Peter Goodrich, Cardozo School of Law, USA 'What Caudill achieves through his seamless merging of law and literature, and science and literature is an exploration of the narrational energies at specific nodes of the law/science interface; from judge activity in Daubert hearings, to the rhetoric framing scientists’ statements on facts and expertise. His masterful hybridity substantially raises the standard in comprehending the complexity of law/science interface.' Kieran Tranter, Griffith Law School, Australia