Hostname: page-component-6bb9c88b65-kzqxb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-22T23:52:19.084Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in the English Courtroom *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Tal Golan
Tal Golan
Affiliation:
Dibner InstituteMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper provides a historical perspective to one of the liveliest debates in common law courts today — the one over scientific expert testimony. Arguing against the current tendency to present the problem of expert testimony as a late twentieth-century predicament which threatens to spin out of control, the paper shows that the phenomena of conflicting scientific testimonies have been perennial for at least two centuries, and intensely debated in both the legal and the scientific communities for at least 150 years.

Information

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , Spring 1999 , pp. 7 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This paper was written with the generous support of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology. I would like to thank also Noah Efron, Robert Nye, and Paul Lucier who read drafts of the paper and made valuable comments.

References

Angell, M. 1996. Science on Trial: The Clash of Medical Evidence and the Law in the Breast Implant Case. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1820. “Facts respecting the Increased Volatility and Inflammability which Fish Oil and its Vapours Acquire by Continued or Renewed Exposure to Certain High Temperatures.” Philosophical Magazine 55: 252–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anonymous. 1885a. “The Institution in the Strand.” Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply, and Sanitary Improvement 46:1097–98.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1885b. “Science in the Law Courts.” Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply, and Sanitary Improvement 46:1145–1146.Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1886. “Science in the Law Courts.” Journal of Gas Lighting, Water Supply, and Sanitary Improvement 47:107.Google Scholar
Basalla, G., Coleman, W., and Kargon, R. H. 1970. Victorian Science: A Self-Portrait from the Presidential Addresses of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Best, W. M. 1854. A Treatise on the Principles of Evidence and Practices as to Proofs in Courts of Common Law. 2nd ed. London: Sweet.Google Scholar
Beuscher, J. H. 1941: “Use of Experts by the Courts.” Harvard Law Review 54:1107–1127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bostock, J. 1821. “Some Observations on Whale Oil.” Annals of Philosophy 17:46–50.Google Scholar
Brewer, S. 1998. “Scientific Expert Testimony and Intellectual Due Process.” Yale Law Journal 107:1535–1681.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brock, W. H. 1976. “The Spectrum of Science Patronage.” In The Patronage of Science in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Turner, G. L. E., 173–206. Leyden: Noordhoff.Google Scholar
Carlyle, T. 1840. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government. Task Force on Judicial and Regulatory Decision Making. 1993. Science and Technology in Judicial Decision Making: Creating Opportunities and Meeting Challenges. New York: Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government.Google Scholar
Clark, M. and Crawford, C. 1994. Legal Medicine in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleridge, S. T. 1839. On The Constitution of the Church and the State According to the Idea of Each. London: W. Pickering.Google Scholar
Crookes, W. 1862. “The Evidence of Experts.” Chemical News 5:183.Google Scholar
Crookes, W. 1864. “Science in Courts of Law.” Chemical News 10:72.Google Scholar
Crookes, W. 1885. “Science in the Law-Courts.” Chemical News 52:299.Google Scholar
Crookes, W. 1886. “Science in the Law-Courts.” Chemical News 52:1–2.Google Scholar
Daubert, v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, Inc. 1993. Supreme Court Reports, 113:2786–2798.Google Scholar
De Ville, K. A. 1990. Medical Malpractice in Nineteenth-Century America: Origins and Legacy. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Edmond, G. and Mercer, D.. 1997. “Keeping History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science Out of the Courtroom: Problems with the Reception of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, Inc.” University of New South Wales Law Journal 20:48–100.Google Scholar
Erzinclioglu, E. 1998. “British Forensic Science in the Dock.” Nature 32:859–860.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federal Judicial Center. 1994. Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. Washington, D.C.: Federal Judicial Center.Google Scholar
Folkes, v Chadd. 1782. In Douglas, S. 1831. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of the Kings' Bench in the Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Years of the Reign of George III. 3 vols. Edited by Roscoe, H.. London: Sweet and Stevens.Google Scholar
Foster, K. R. and Huber, P. W. 1997. Judging Science: Scientific Knowledge and the Federal Courts. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fullmer, J. Z. 1980. “Technology, Chemistry, and the Law in Early Nineteenth Century England.” Technology and Culture 21:1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, G. 1795. The Law of Evidence. 4th ed, edited by Lofft, Capel. Dublin: Byrne.Google Scholar
Gillespie, v. Russell. [1854–1855] 1882. Cases Decided in the Court of Session. &c., 1–15, 533–547. Edinburgh: Vetich.Google Scholar
Golan, T. 1997. “Science on the Witness Stand: Scientific Expert Testimony in Anglo-American Courts, 1782–1923.” Ph.D. dissertation. University Microfilm International: Ann Harbor.Google Scholar
Golan, T. 1998. “The Authority of Shadows: The Legal Embrace of the X-Ray.” Historical Reflections 22:437–458.Google Scholar
Hamlin, C. 1986. “Scientific Method and Expert Witnessing: Victorian Perspectives on a Modern Problem.” Social Studies of Science 16:485–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hand, L. 1901. “Historical and Practical Considerations Regarding Expert Testimony.” Harvard Law Review 15:40–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harcourt, W. V. 1862. “Technical and Scientific Evidence in Courts of Law.” Chemical News 6:189–190.Google Scholar
Harvard Law Review. 1995. “Development in the Law — Confronting the New Challenges of Scientific Evidence.” Harvard Law Review 108:1481–1605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdsworth, W. 1938. A History of English Law. 12 vols. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Huber, P. W. 1991. Galileo's Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Huber, P. W. 1992. “Junk Science in the Courtroom.” Valparaiso University Law Review 26:723–755.Google Scholar
[J. W.], 1860. “Proposed Amendment of the Criminal Law so far as Regards Scientific Evidence in Cases of Poisoning.” Chemical News 1:285–286.Google Scholar
Jasanoff, S. 1990. The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policy Makers. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jasanoff, S. 1995. Science at the Bar: Law, Science, and Technology in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jasanoff, S. 1996. “Beyond Epistemology: Relativism and Engagement in the Politics of Science.” Social Studies of Science 26:393–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, C. 1994. Expert Witnesses: Science. Medicine. and the Practice of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kantrowitz, A. 1967. “Proposal for an Institution for Scientific Judgment.” Science 156:763–764.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Landsman, S. 1990a. “From Gilbert to Bentham: The Reconceptualization of Evidence Theory.” Wayne Law Review 36:1149–1186Google Scholar
Landsman, S. 1990b. “The Rise of the Contentious Spirit: Adversary Procedures in Eighteenth-Century England.” Cornell Law Review 75: 498–609.Google Scholar
Landsman, S. 1995. “Of Witches, Madmen, and Products Liability: An Historical Survey of the Use of Expert Testimony.” Behavioral Sciences and the Law 13:131–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landsman, S. 1998. “One Hundred Years of Rectitude: Medical Witnesses at the Old Baily, 1717–1817.” Law and History Review 16:445–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langbein, J. H. 1978. “The Criminal Trial Before the Lawyers.” University of Chicago Law Review 45:263–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langbein, J. H. 1983. “Shaping the Eighteenth-Century Criminal Trial: A View from the Rider Sources.” University of Chicago Law Review 50:1–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langbein, J. H. 1985. “The German Advantage in Civil Procedures,” University of Chicago Law Review 52:823–866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, N. 1885. “The Whole Duty of a Chemist.” Nature 33:73–77.Google Scholar
Loevinger, L. 1995. “Science as Evidence.” Jurimetrics 35:153–190.Google Scholar
Lucier, P. 1996. “Court and Controversy: Patenting Science in the Nineteenth Century.” British Journal for the History of Science 29:139–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macleod, R. 1996. Public Science and Public Policy in Victorian England. Hampshire: Variorum.Google Scholar
Martin, J. A. 1977. “The Proposed ‘Science Court’.” Michigan Law Review 75:1058–1091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormick, C. T. 1954. “Some Observations Upon the Opinion Rule and Expert Testimony.” Texas Law Review 23:109–135.Google Scholar
Mohr, J. C. 1993. Doctors and the Law: Medical Jurisprudence in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morrel, J. and Thackray, A. 1981. Gentlemen of Science: Early Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Mylne, R. 1781. Report on the Survey of the Harbour, Etc. of Wells, in Norfolk. Unpublished Manuscript. Sutro Library: San FranciscoGoogle Scholar
Neufeld, P. J. 1993. “Have You No Sense of Decency.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 84:189–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odgers, S. and Richardson, J. 1995. “Keeping Bad Science Out of the Courtroom: Changes in American and Australian Expert Evidence Law.” University of New South Wales Law Journal 18:108–129.Google Scholar
Odling, W. 1860. “Science in Courts of Law.” Journal of the Society of Arts 7:167–168.Google Scholar
Odling, W. 1885. “The Whole Duty of a Chemist.” Nature 33:99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldham, J. 1983. “The Origins of the Special Jury.” University of Chicago Law Review 50:137–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oldham, J. 1992. The Mansfield Manuscripts and the Growth of English Law in the Eighteenth Century. 2 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Parkes, S. 1821. “Observation on the Chemical Part of the Evidence. Given Upon the Late Trial of the Action Brought by Messrs. Severn, King, and Co. against the Imperial Insurance Company.” Quarterly Journal of Science and the Arts 10:316–353.Google Scholar
Peak, T. 1801. Compendium of Law on Evidence. London: Brook and Rider.Google Scholar
Pollock, F. 1904. The Expansion of the Common Law. London: Stevens and Sons.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal Commission on Criminal Justice. 1993. Report. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Severn, v. Olive. In 1896. Revised Reports. Edited by Pollock, F., 23:565. London: Sweet and Maxwell.Google Scholar
Shapin, S. 1994. A Social History of Truth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smeaton, J. [1782] 1812. “Report of Wells Harbour.” In Reports of the Late John Smeaton, F.R.S. Made on Various Occasions, in the Course of His Employment as a Civil Engineer. 4 vols. 3:1–35. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Smith, R. A. 1860. “Science in our Courts of Law.” Journal of the Society of Arts 7:135–49.Google Scholar
Smith, R. and Wynne, B. 1989. Expert Evidence: Interpreting Science in the Law. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Stephen, J. F. 1863. A General View of the Criminal Law of England. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Stephen, J. F. 1883. A History of the Criminal Law of England. 3 vols. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Symposium. 1983a. “Science and the Rules of Evidence.” Federal Rules Decisions 99:187–242. St. Paul: West Publishing.Google Scholar
Symposium. 1983b. “Science and the Rules of Legal Procedures.” Federal Rules Decisions. 101:599–649. St. Paul: West Publishing.Google Scholar
Symposium. 1987. “Rules for Admissibility of Scientific Evidence.” Federal Rules Decisions 15:79–144. St. Paul: West Publishing.Google Scholar
Symposium. 1994. “Scientific Evidence after the Death of Frye.” Cardozo Law Review 15:1745–2370.Google Scholar
Symposium. 1995. “Behavioral Science Evidence in the Wake of Daubert.” Behavioral Sciences and the Law 13:127–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thayer, J. B. 1892. Select Cases on Evidence at the Common Law. Cambridge: Sever.Google Scholar
Tighe, J. A. 1984. “A Question of Responsibility: The Development of American Forensic Psychiatry. 1838–1930.” Ph.D. dissertation. University Microfilm International: Ann Harbor.Google Scholar
Turner, F. M. 1993. Contesting Cultural Authority: Essays in Victorian Intellectual Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twiss, T. 1876. Black Book of the Admiralty, Roles Series. London.Google Scholar
Wigmore, J. H. 1904. “The History of the Hearsay Rule.” Harvard Law Review 17:437–458CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wigmore, J. H. 1923. A Treatise on the Anglo-American System of Evidence in Trials at Common Law. 2nd ed. 5 vols. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Willging, T. E. and Cecil, J. S. 1994. “The Use of Court Appointed Expert in Federal Courts.” Judicature 78:41–47.Google Scholar
Woolf, H. 1996. Access to Justice: Final report. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Yeo, R. 1981. “Scientific Method and the Image of Science, 1831–1891.” In Macleod, R. and Collins, P. The Parliament of Science: The British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831–1981, 65–88. Middlesex: Science Reviews Ltd.Google Scholar