Expert Evidence - JURD7316
Faculty: Faculty of Law
School: Faculty of Law
Course Outline: See below
Campus: Sydney
Career: Postgraduate
Units of Credit: 6
EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)
Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 4
Enrolment Requirements:
Pre-requisite: 36 UOC of JURD courses for students enrolled prior to 2013. For students enrolled after 2013, pre-requisite: 72 UOC of JURD courses.
Excluded: LAWS3316
CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)
Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule
Further Information: See Class Timetable
View course information for previous years.
Description
Expert Evidence provides a critical overview of contemporary approaches to expert evidence from a variety of common law jurisdictions, particularly Australia, Canada, England and the United States. It complements the core course: Court Process, Evidence and Proof. Expert evidence will be considered from a range of legal, sociological, philosophical and historiographical perspectives. The course is multi-disciplinary and comparative and will introduce students to relevant critical non-legal literatures, drawing upon insights from beyond the law, especially empirical studies and scientific literatures. The course will explore prevailing approaches to expert evidence along with models of science and expertise used in legal settings. The course is designed to assist students contemplating practice. It will provide them with innovative ways to understand the function of expert evidence and offer means of building and contesting cases incorporating such evidence. The course will cover topics such as: forensic sciences and the new investigative technologies (such as DNA profiling and biometrics); how to cross-examine scientists; the role of expert evidence in wrongful convictions (such as Chamberlain, Clarke, Folbigg, Gilham and Wood); the use of expert evidence in mass torts (such as breast implants, asbestos, intra-uterine devices and Agent Orange) and native title; along with alternative rules and procedures (such as concurrent evidence, court-appointed experts and inquisitorial practices).
Recommended
Course Aims
This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the role that expert evidence plays in contemporary civil and criminal trials, in Australia and related common law jurisdictions, and an opportunity to engage in critical reflection and analysis of contemporary approaches to expert evidence. It aims to provide students with a working knowledge of the substantive admissibility and procedural rules, as well as an understanding of the range of divergent and often inconsistent approaches to understanding the sciences and their use in legal settings. Drawing on the insights from a range of multidisciplinary perspectives, the course aims to provide a sense of the richness of contemporary critical theory and scientific analysis, and the possibilities opened up in applying these insights to real-world contexts, in this case expert opinion evidence and its role in legal practice. Thus the course aims to assist students contemplating practice, including helping students to think about appropriate experts; how to integrate expert opinion evidence into the construction of a persuasive case; as well as providing a conceptual apparatus to inform the destabilisation of expert evidence and to critically deconstruct judgments predicated upon expert opinions.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of the key common law and statutory rules relating to the admissibility of expert opinion evidence in civil and criminal proceedings in Australia and related common law jurisdictions;
- Demonstrate an understanding of the procedural frameworks applicable to the preparation and presentation of expert opinion evidence, including codes of conduct, case management and inquisitorial processes, and concurrent evidence;
- Demonstrate an understanding of current challenges and problems relating to the use of expert opinion evidence in civil and criminal cases across a number of domains including criminal cases involving forensic science evidence, mass tort litigation and native title;
- Demonstrate an awareness of the relevance of multi-disciplinary perspectives and literatures to developing a detailed understanding of contemporary approaches to expert opinion evidence and its use in criminal and civil cases;
- Critically analyse selected contemporary approaches to expert evidence, and/or selected case studies, and/or the operation of admissibility and procedural rules and related institutional practices in Australia and related jurisdictions, taking into account contemporary trial conditions, developments in comparative jurisdictions and relevant theoretical, interdisciplinary and/or other non-legal literatures.
Study Levels
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