Science and the Courts (SC) (Judge-Taught)

Science plays an ever increasing role in the courts, typified by everything from debate about the reliability of forensic evidence in criminal cases to global warming disputes in environmental cases to genome patent disputes in intellectual property cases to scientific controversies about prescription drug defects in mass tort cases to the admissibility of adolescent brain development evidence in death penalty cases, and so forth. This short course addresses the difficulties that courts encounter in dealing with scientific evidence and scientific concepts, both at the practical level and at the jurisprudential level. While the readings are somewhat long for a “short” course, students will be expected only to “skim” the longer cases.