Professor Imwinkelried writes chapter for international text on scientific evidence

Professor Ed Imwinkelried has contributed a key chapter in a new international text on scientific evidence, Forensic Science Evidence and Expert Witness Testimony: Reliability Through  Reform, published by Edward Elgar (2018).

The text’s 13 chapters survey the use of scientific evidence in various legal systems throughout the world. Professor Imwinkelried authored the chapter on the use of expert testimony in American courts.

The focus of his chapter is the impact of the Supreme Court's 1993 decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which adopted a new empirical validation standard for the admissibility of scientific evidence.  The chapter contends that in the short term, Daubert has had only a modest doctrinal impact, especially in criminal cases.  However, the chapter argues that in the long term, the Daubert Court's explicit recognition of the uncertainty in investigational science can have a profound impact, placing the law of expert testimony on a sounder epistemological basis.

The Irish contributor to the text is Professor Liz Heffernan of the law faculty of Trinity College Dublin.  Professor Heffernan is Professor Imwinkelried's coauthor on the text Irish Evidentiary Foundations.

Professor Imwinkelried is a world-renowned evidence expert who has published extensively in the field.