research topics on evidence law

Research Paper Topics for Law of Evidence

Research Paper Topics for Law of Evidence- The Law of Evidence is a fundamental pillar of the legal system that governs the admissibility, presentation, and evaluation of evidence in court proceedings. As a multifaceted field, it offers ample opportunities for research and analysis. This article aims to provide a comprehensive list of research paper topics that can delve into various aspects of the Law of Evidence, shedding light on crucial issues, emerging trends, and evolving practices.

• The Admissibility of Digital Evidence: Challenges and Future Implications
• The Role of Expert Witnesses in the Law of Evidence: A Comparative Analysis
• The Impact of DNA Evidence on Criminal Investigations and Courtroom Proceedings
• The Use of Forensic Science in Establishing Identity: A Critical Examination
• The Admissibility and Reliability of Eyewitness Testimony in Criminal Trials
• The Privilege against Self-Incrimination: Balancing Individual Rights and the Interests of Justice
• The Role of Hearsay Evidence in Modern Legal Systems: A Comparative Study
• The Use of Surveillance Technology in Criminal Investigations: Legal and Ethical Considerations
• The Admissibility of Polygraph and Brainwave Technologies as Evidence in Court
• The Intersection of Law and Neuroscience: Implications for the Law of Evidence
• The Impact of Social Media Evidence on Legal Proceedings: Privacy and Authentication Issues
• The Role of Character Evidence in Criminal Trials: Relevance, Admissibility, and Policy Considerations
• The Use of Statistical and Probabilistic Evidence in Court: Challenges and Limitations
• The Admissibility of Confessions and Statements Obtained under Interrogation: The Role of Police Tactics and Human Rights
• The Use of Expert Testimony in Cases of Mental Health and Insanity: Challenges and Best Practices

The Law of Evidence encompasses a wide range of intriguing research topics that delve into the core principles, evolving practices, and contemporary challenges in the field. By exploring these research paper topics, scholars and legal practitioners can contribute to the advancement of evidentiary rules, enhance the administration of justice, and foster a deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics of evidence in legal proceedings.

These topics cover various aspects of the law of evidence and can serve as a starting point for your research paper. Remember to narrow down your focus and tailor the topic to your specific interests or jurisdiction if necessary.

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Evidence Research Guide

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Primary Law Sources: Federal Rules of Evidence

The Federal Rules of Evidence themselves are available from a variety of sources, both in print and online.

For a list of sources, in addition to resources for  cases and legislative history  research, refer to our  Federal Court Rules Research Guide .

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This guide is focused on the Federal Rules of Evidence and related material.  We recommend starting your research with secondary sources such as evidence law texts & treatises or legal encyclopedias . 

For information on state rules of evidence , please refer to the "Statutes and Legislation" page of our research guide for  any particular state ; state rules of evidence will generally be found in that state's statutory code.

The following are some good places to begin your research, especially if you are new to this area of law.  For a list of treatises and links to treatise collections, see the Texts, Treatises, & In-Depth Resources  page of this guide.

If you are not familiar with what secondary sources are, or if you need to begin with a more basic secondary source that can provide you with an introductory overview of your topic (such as a  legal encyclopedia ) you may want to begin with our  Secondary Sources Research Guide  or our  Secondary Sources Tutorial .

• Evidence: An Overview (Cornell Legal Information Institute) Provides a basic introductory overview of evidence including links to related statutes, judicial decisions, conventions and treaties, and key Internet sources.
• Federal Practice and Procedure (Wright & Miller) A multi-volume treatise covering all aspects of federal civil, criminal and appellate procedure, including rules of procedure and evidence. It provides extensive rule-by-rule discussion, with copious references to cases and other materials. It is also available on Westlaw .

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Samia v. United States

A label covering a “multitude of sins”: the harm of national security deference.

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• Shirin Sinnar

No Appetite for Change: The Supreme Court Buttresses the State Secrets Privilege, Twice

Comment on United States v. Husayn ( Zubaydah ) and FBI v. Fazaga

• Robert Chesney

Privacy as Privilege: The Stored Communications Act and Internet Evidence

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State v. Andrews

Supreme Court of New Jersey Holds that Compelled Disclosure of Defendant’s iPhone Passcodes Does Not Violate the Self-Incrimination Clause.

Plummer v. University of Houston

Fifth Circuit Holds that Due Process Standards May Be Lowered in the Presence of “Overwhelming” Video and Photographic Evidence of Guilt.

Haskins v. 3M Co.

District of South Carolina Holds the Every Exposure Theory Insufficient to Demonstrate Specific Causation Even if Legal Conclusions Are Scientifically Sound.

Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado

Applying empirical psychology to inform courtroom adjudication — potential contributions and challenges.

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Back to Course Catalog

Fall 2021 • Seminar

Advanced Topics in Evidence

Prerequisites: None

Exam Type: No Exam

We consider legal truth from jury view: proof by live witness, proof by expert, and the relationship of truth to evidence, time and viewpoint. We explore the nature of a judicial ‘finding of fact.’

Expect periodic short assignments in writing, peer appreciation and critique. We will discourse in both true-name zoom-space and pseudonymous  threads -space. Students will write two papers for grade, an initial paper (500 words) in response to a specified question due at the outset of the exam period, and a final reflective paper (1500 words) due at the end of the exam period.

This is NOT a course on the Federal Rules of Evidence.

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39 Empirical Research in Law

John Baldwin is Professor of Judicial Administration in the Law School, University of Birmingham, and has been Director of the Institute of Judicial Administration since 1982. In the past thirty years, he has conducted a great number of empirical research projects, concerned in particular with the administration of justice, both criminal and civil. His latest book is Small Claims in County Courts in England and Wales: The Bargain Basement of Civil Justice? (Clarendon Press, 1997).

Gwynn Davis is Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow attached to the Department of Law, University of Bristol. Over the past twenty-five years he has conducted over forty empirical research projects in the fields of family law and practice, criminal justice, and developments in the legal profession. He is the author of Partisans and Mediators (Clarendon Press, 1988) and, most recently, Child Support in Action (with Nick Wikeley and Richard Young, Hart, 1998).

• Published: 18 September 2012
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This article considers the contribution to legal scholarship which has been and is being made by research strategies which fall under the broad heading of ‘empirical’. Empirical research in law involves the study, through direct methods rather than secondary sources, of the institutions, rules, procedures, and personnel of the law, with a view to understanding how they operate and what effects they have. It is not a synonym for ‘statistical’ or ‘factual’, and its intellectual depth and significance are not determined by the empirical label but can only be judged by reference to the same standards and the same yardsticks as would be applied to any other academic endeavour.

1 Introduction

I n this chapter we consider the contribution to legal scholarship which has been and is being made by research strategies which fall under the broad heading of ‘empirical’. Empirical research may be defined by reference to what it is not, as well as to what it is. It is not purely theoretical or doctrinal; it does not rest on an analysis of statute and decided cases; and it does not rely on secondary sources. What empiricists do, in one way or another, is to study the operations and the effects of the law. This leaves a great many decisions still to be taken. The focus of attention may be upon professional actors or it may be upon consumers; it may be upon the practice of law or upon measures of outcome; it may be upon legal processes which are in any event highly visible, even iconic, or it may be upon aspects of the law which normally remain subterranean; and finally it may involve collecting data on large numbers of cases, each subject to a predetermined scheme of categorization and reporting, or it may involve the painstaking examination of a relatively few interactions. All we can say, therefore, is that empirical research in law involves the study, through direct methods rather than secondary sources, of the institutions, rules, procedures, and personnel of the law, with a view to understanding how they operate and what effects they have. It is not a synonym for ‘statistical’ or ‘factual’, and its intellectual depth and significance are not determined by the empirical label but can only be judged by reference to the same standards and the same yardsticks as would be applied to any other academic endeavour.

There is one distinctive feature of the empirical research enterprise to which we should draw attention at the outset. This is that empirical research in law is not the preserve of the academic lawyer alone, but has attracted scholars from across the social sciences, especially sociologists, economists, and psychologists. This is desirable in principle since the workings of law and legal institutions have such profound social, economic, and political consequences that they ought not to be treated as the monopoly interest of lawyers. In keeping with this, we find that even long-established principles governing the analysis of legal reasoning have been subject to challenge by ‘realist’ scholars (Twining, 1973 ). However, it is principally through empirical study of the practice of law (especially of the preliminary and apparently more mundane aspects), and in studying the way legal processes and decisions impact upon the citizen, that the disciplines of sociology and, to a lesser degree, philosophy, psychology, and economics have entered into and enriched the study of law. This multidisciplinary research has, in turn, influenced many aspects of legal practice, albeit the insights gained may be conveyed imperfectly and in such a manner as barely to do justice to the complexity of the originating ideas. Even the rules and procedures of the law, which can seem arcane and specialist, reflect this influence.

Whilst ‘black letter’ legal scholars engage in painstaking analysis of decisions taken in the courts, especially at appellate level, other social science disciplines have contributed to a widespread recognition that the study of what law does can be as stimulating and intellectually challenging as the study of what the law says , and furthermore that traditional legal scholarship should not be regarded as a separate world but is itself enriched through a fuller understanding of law in its social context. So it is that many distinguished legal scholars, whilst they may not conduct empirical research themselves, engage with the evidence contributed by empiricists as to how law works and how it affects people's lives. Their definition of the scope of their subject now includes these elements.

2 Burgeoning Activity

In the period since World War II growing numbers of academic lawyers and social scientists have become interested in applying empirical research methods to the study of legal processes. It is possible to trace the origins of the empirical approach to a much earlier time, for example, to the work of Quetelet and Guerry in Continental Europe in the early nineteenth century (see Radzinowicz, 1966 : 29–42), but it was not until the advent of the so-called ‘realist’ school of jurisprudence in the middle of the last century that empirical enquiry became an accepted basis for legal analysis. Realist scholars maintained that judicial decisions were influenced by a host of personal and social factors, and that they ought therefore to be analysed not only with reference to statute, precedent, and established legal principle, but also with reference to judges' social backgrounds and political beliefs. Research on the politics of the judiciary conducted in the UK by Griffith ( 1997 ) and Robertson ( 1998 ), and in the United States by writers such as Levin ( 1977 ) and Estreicher and Sexton ( 1986 ), indicates that this tradition is still very much alive. The questions posed by these researchers, and their starting assumptions, have in turn influenced the work of other legal scholars who are not themselves inclined to pursue empirical strategies, thereby contributing to a reorientation in legal thinking and helping to change the nature of legal scholarship.

These developments have not, however, been uniform, either geographically or substantively. Despite the altered profile of legal research in the common law world following the widespread adoption of an empirical approach, there are some law schools—and some disciplines—within which empirical study continues to be regarded as a peripheral and perhaps even a downmarket interest, and certainly the dominant ethos remains doctrinal. However, virtually all law schools contain at least a smattering of empiricists, and some legal disciplines have been transformed through their influence. These include, most obviously, criminal law and criminal justice, family law, and parts of regulatory or ‘public’ law. There is also a burgeoning interest in empirical study of developments within the legal profession.

One factor not intrinsic to the subject itself which has stimulated the empirical approach within law schools has been the income which universities have been able to secure by this means. In the UK all universities have been driven to seek funds beyond their core government grant. Empirical research in, for example, criminal justice has proved attractive to potential sponsors—including government departments—and universities have found it in their interests to sustain empirical researchers who are capable of generating this income. Also, as external audit and monitoring of academic activities have become increasingly prominent in the drive to make these institutions more publicly accountable, the capacity to undertake large-scale empirical research has come to be regarded as one of the hallmarks of a diverse and academically vibrant law school. Similar processes occur in the United States, where the expenditures of public universities may be reviewed by state legislatures, and national grant agencies may require universities to account for their spending. This external auditing, coupled with pressures to extend universities' funding base, has contributed to a situation where empirical research is now central to the life of many law departments—something that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.

These developments have gone hand in hand with the recruitment of non-lawyers into law schools, and also with collaboration across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Indeed, it is striking how many prominent empirical researchers in law have a background in other disciplines. Some took their first degree in the humanities, but most were trained in one or other of the social sciences. It is probably fair to say that there has not been a coherent intellectual vision underlying this recruitment and collaboration. It has tended, rather, to be haphazard and serendipitous, reflecting perhaps the fact that scholars happened to be working in the same institution, or a chance convergence of interests. Many non-lawyers working in law schools were recruited in the first instance as contract researchers, employed on projects devised by academic lawyers. Sometimes the process of recruitment has worked the other way, with lawyers being approached by colleagues in the social sciences who were intent on examining some aspects of the legal process and who recognized the need for legal expertise on their research team.

Some of the non-lawyers recruited in this way have a firm grounding in the core discipline of sociology; others have some training in the methods of empirical investigation; but it is a very mixed picture, and many empirical research projects in law, even those with nominal ‘social scientists’ on board, cannot lay claim to intellectual roots located in another discipline. They may be referred to as ‘interdisciplinary’ but reflect only the most basic sociological precepts—for example, that rules do not necessarily determine behaviour, or that the conduct of actors and institutions cannot be understood simply by reference to their officially declared purposes.

So intellectual depth and coherence may sometimes be lacking, but over a period many of these non-lawyers have established a foothold in law schools, following which they have expanded the scope of their activities. For example, some now contribute as teachers of ‘fringe’ legal subjects—for example, criminology, sociology of law, socio-legal studies—which grew in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s as a means of extending a narrowly based law curriculum. Meanwhile, perhaps influenced by this cross-fertilization, some academic lawyers have themselves become interested in the study of legal processes, including the behaviour of professional actors, the strategies of bargaining and negotiation, and the degree to which legal endowments determine formal outcome. The sociological underpinning may be rudimentary, but some of these untutored investigators have proved themselves to be talented, intuitive commentators upon a world which they have chosen to view not as professional insiders but with an outsider's critical eye and an enthusiasm for the great themes exemplified in the practice of law.

This burgeoning interest in the study of legal processes has contributed to the creation of a number of research institutes dedicated to the empirical study of law and legal institutions. Whilst many of these centres are generalist in character, in which case the generic label ‘socio-legal’ may be applied to them, others are more specialist, devoted, for example, to the study of criminal justice, penology, judicial administration, civil justice, or family law. Some of these research centres are long-established, being supported by grants from charitable trusts or foundations, or by government departments; others lead a more precarious existence, being dependent upon their own host institution for financial support. Whilst only a minority of the academic researchers who engage in empirical research in law are employed within these centres, they are none the less important, both practically and symbolically, as demonstrating an institutional commitment to this kind of research and in raising its profile.

Similar observations might be made in relation to the publication of the results of empirical research. In some fields of law it is empirical researchers, rather than doctrinal scholars, who are cited most frequently in the legal literature. Some of the most venerable and prestigious legal journals have proved ready recipients of material with an empirical content. In addition, journals with a distinctly ‘socio-legal’ orientation (e.g. Law and Society Review and Journal of Law and Society ) have flourished in this period and provide an invaluable outlet for socio-legal scholarship, including the empirical. Finally, some mainstream legal publishers have committed themselves to producing substantial monographs which present the fruits of empirical enquiry on a range of legal topics, and we have even seen the advent of distinctively ‘socio-legal’ publishers (for example, Sage Publications and Hart Publishing), much of whose output has an empirical component.

3 Why is Empiricism Found in Some Fields of Law but Not Others?

Whilst some areas of law have been transformed by the empirical approach, others (such as contract) have remained largely untouched by it. It is important to ask why this is, and to consider the implications for legal scholarship generally. One possible starting-point is the observation that empirical strategies reflect the influence of non-lawyers, and it is probably the case that some legal subjects are more accessible to the non-lawyer, and hold greater intuitive appeal, than do others. The technical intricacies of the law relating to trusts or contract, for example, inevitably act as a deterrent to anyone outside the narrow band of legal scholars who have mastered the complexities of the subject. Criminal law is also complex, but it is not ‘law’ as such that has attracted the interest of criminologists and other criminal justice scholars. The focus of attention has tended to be upon legal institutions—for example, the police and prosecuting authorities—rather than upon legal doctrine, and some sociologists have contributed ground-breaking studies of these institutions which in turn have deepened our understanding of legal phenomena (see e.g. Reiner, 1992 ; Rock, 1993 ).

Accessibility to non-lawyers is important because the empirical approach is only likely to appeal, and to seem relevant, when law is conceived as an instrument of social policy, and this is not the way in which doctrinal lawyers are taught to approach their subject. The legal scholar who operates in the common law tradition is primarily interested not in the social policy of the law, or the translation of that policy into effective practice, but rather in the coherence and logic of legal argument applied to a given set of facts. Admittedly, most legal scholars in common law countries would say that their work is informed to some degree by the social sciences, and by theoretical or policy-orientated writing. However, that does not mean that they themselves engage in empirical research, or even that they consume the fruits of others' investigations. Criminal justice and, to a lesser extent, the tort system are perhaps the two areas in which there has been the most effective cross-over—see, for example, the work of Dewees et al . (1996) ; the series of surveys conducted in the 1970s for the Pearson Commission (Royal Commission, 1978 ), and by the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies; Genn's work on tort settlements (1987); and research sponsored by the Rand Corporation in the US (Hensler et al ., 2000 ).

Despite this important work, there lies buried deep within the traditions of the common law an alternative view of the legal enterprise, one in which ‘policy’ emerges through the application of legal precedent. This is not to say that the academic lawyer is uninterested in broader themes, or in empirical investigation as a means of exploring those themes, but such exploration will tend to be regarded as a parallel activity, one that is undertaken by scholars from other disciplines. In fact, there are many fields of law in which academic lawyers tend not to conduct empirical research, but where their approach is none the less socio-legal in the sense that they draw upon a parallel literature which addresses many of the same issues, but from a sociological or economic perspective. Company law provides one example. This is a field in which there are strong interdisciplinary links and in which the fruits of empirical research are routinely employed by academic lawyers to enrich their view of the subject. There is, for example, a substantial empirical literature on the economic effects of takeovers. However, this empirical investigation tends not to be something that company lawyers carry forward themselves; nor is it defined as falling within the ‘law’ component of the subject.

There are other fields however—and criminal justice is the most obvious example—in which there is no separation of the legal and social policy dimensions and therefore no gulf to bridge. This is partly because the legal dimension is reasonably accessible to the non-lawyer, and partly because lawyers working in these areas tend themselves to be enthused by issues of policy and practice. So it is that in criminal justice (and to a lesser extent in tort, public and family law) academic lawyers have tended to address many of the same issues as social scientists and they have a literature which is at the very least overlapping. They also tend to regard empirical investigation as an essential tool, and one that confers academic prestige and other benefits upon its most skilled and inventive practitioners.

4 Main Questions and Preoccupations

To say that empirical researchers are interested in issues of social policy which are reflected in the law, and in the implementation of that policy through legal practice, leaves much still to be explained about the nature of empirical work. One possible starting-point is with the observation that empiricists aim to describe the legal world as it is, not as it is meant to be, with many studies emphasizing the disparity between textbook depictions of legal and judicial processes and their everyday reality. It was Roscoe Pound in the early years of the last century who first drew the distinction between ‘law in the books’ and ‘law in action’, the essential point being that the study of statute and decided cases is not sufficient as a means of discovering how legal institutions and legal practitioners conduct themselves (Pound, 1910 ). Many aspects of legal process are characterized by the exercise of discretion, and by the development of working practices which do not figure in any account of legal rules. The settlement culture which pervades the civil courts, and plea bargaining within criminal justice, are two examples of this.

This ‘gap’ between legal texts and the day-to-day reality of legal practice has become a preoccupation of the empirical researcher. Studies have been conducted which demonstrate, for example, that the way in which police officers arrive at arrest and detention decisions is often at odds with legal rules; that decision-making in the courtroom reflects the attitudes and prejudices of the judge who hears the case as well as the clinical application of the law; and that the way in which lawyers dispose of their cases frequently departs from legally prescribed procedures. The 1960s, in particular, witnessed a considerable reorientation of criminal justice research, with studies such as those conducted by Piliavin and Briar ( 1964 ), Skolnick ( 1966 ), and Blumberg ( 1967 ) focusing on decision-making at different stages of the justice process. These studies revealed that police officers' arrest decisions reflected their assessments of the character and demeanour of the individuals concerned; that informal interactions between defence and prosecution lawyers were commonly at odds with legally prescribed procedures; and that courtroom decisions reflected, at least in part, the personal attributes of the judge. A typical observation was that of Piliavin and Briar ( 1964 : 214), who concluded that ‘[t]he official delinquent, as distinguished from the juvenile who simply commits a delinquent act, is the product of a social judgment … he is a delinquent because someone in authority has defined him as one, often on the basis of the public face he has presented to officials rather than of the kind of offence he has committed’. These studies represent landmarks in the empirical investigation of legal procedures, and some indication of the scale of the endeavour is provided by the criminal justice bibliography compiled by Radzinowicz and Hood in 1976 which gives 10,000 references to criminal justice research and runs to 400 pages. As those of us embarking on research careers in this period appreciate, this literature had a profound impact, serving to inspire empirical researchers throughout the common law world.

One abiding characteristic of this research was its critical edge, with the authors generally taking a negative view of legal actors' casual approach to rule observance. The disparity between law in the books and law in action was most evident in relation to pre-trial criminal procedures, with legal practitioners being seen to concentrate their energies on avoiding trial rather than preparing for it. The US literature on plea bargaining, focusing upon the inducements offered to criminal defendants to forgo their right to jury trial, would itself fill several shelves in any law library, with most of this work being critical in tone.

As far as civil justice is concerned, empirical research has developed more slowly, but it has still proved influential in certain areas, with US scholars again leading the way. These civil justice studies have been concerned with matters such as case settlement procedures (Rosenberg, 1964 ); access to justice (Cappelletti and Garth, 1978 ); small claims adjudication (Yngvesson and Hennessey, 1975 ); and developments in the legal profession (Abel, 1989 ). As with criminal justice research, many of these authors have highlighted the disparity between formal rules and textbook accounts of process and procedures on the one hand and the reality of legal practice on the other.

The now commonplace observation that the standard means of disposal of both criminal and civil cases is through informal out-of-court negotiation and settlement is derived principally from this research. Although still not reflected in some textbooks, the literature on plea bargaining, and on the settlement of civil claims, has contributed greatly to what is now a general acceptance of the view that in order to understand the justice process it is necessary to observe it at every stage and not to focus exclusively on set-piece courtroom dramas. It is also vital to tap the experience of lay actors and not to view the operation of legal processes solely from the perspective of the powerful and the privileged.

This brings us to a second characteristic of empirical research, which is that it tends to give considerable prominence to the voice of the consumer of legal services. In the best work of this kind, the consumer (whether litigant, witness, victim, or defendant) is not regarded as the sole arbiter of the value and effectiveness of legal services, but the consumer perspective is seen as having its own validity, which means that it can be a useful corrective both to some rule-based accounts and to the voice of the professional practitioner. Some of the most influential research of this kind has achieved its impact precisely because it has demonstrated that the experience of those on the receiving end of legal processes was not understood or adequately represented by the legal practitioners whose job it was to safeguard their interests and who saw themselves as doing this in good faith (Baldwin and McConville, 1977 ; Felstiner et al ., 1981 ; Davis et al ., 1994 ). So the view that legal processes can only be described and evaluated by practitioners and professional commentators—or even that they are best evaluated by these professional insiders—is one that has been effectively challenged through empirical research.

A third feature of the empirical approach is that it tends to be focused upon lower level and preliminary legal processes. It is true that some empirical legal researchers have been concerned with decision-making at more rarified levels, but the main focus tends to be upon those parts of the legal process which are high volume, routine, largely hidden from public view, and which are dealt with cursorily if at all within legal texts. This focus upon routine decision-making is characteristic of empirical studies in both criminal and civil justice. So also is the preoccupation with the early stages of legal proceedings—the so-called ‘low visibility’ part—this being the point at which the future trajectory of both civil and criminal cases is often determined. Empirical researchers have examined, for example, how the police make decisions on the streets; the processes by which the police and prosecuting authorities decide whether an alleged offender should be prosecuted, and on what charge; the settlement strategies of civil and criminal litigators; the significance of procedure, including the part played by preliminary hearings in civil cases, and why these cases typically settle at a late stage. Other studies have examined the interactions between lawyers and their clients, and the impact of lawyers' work management strategies. None of these subjects is intrinsically more (or less) interesting than the preoccupations of the doctrinal legal scholar, but they reflect a view that the practice of law is an important subject for study in its own right, and that this practice needs to be observed in all its ‘minute particulars’ if it is to be accurately described and understood.

Low visibility is also a feature of the mechanisms intended to ensure that organizations comply with the regulations governing their practice, and these regulatory regimes have provided another target for empirical study. This work, which has been conducted in many parts of the common law world, has focused upon the role of inspectorates of various kinds and on the extent to which organizations comply with their own regulatory standards. The studies cover, for example, the work of factory inspectors (Baldwin, 1995 ), environmental health officers (Hutter, 1988 ), occupational health and safety officers (Gunningham and Johnstone, 1999 ), and business and financial services regulators (Grabosky and Braithwaite, 1986 ; Black, 1997 ). A unifying theme of this literature is the significance of negotiation in delivering compliance.

Another ‘driver’ of empirical research, prominent under the recent New Labour administrations in the UK, is the (laudable) impulse to monitor legal innovation by government and to evaluate its consequences. Monitoring and evaluating innovation have provided a great deal of work for the socio-legal community, which perhaps explains why it is seldom questioned, but we have certain reservations about it as the dominant empirical research model. The first arises from the fact that this research may be used essentially for presentational purposes. It is hard to imagine that the government department which commissions the research is seeking totally independent assessment and conclusions: to some degree at least the policy is already formed. The tensions around this issue are reflected in the tussles which occasionally occur between government departments and researchers over the right to publish (see below). A second reservation concerns the ‘reformist’ nature of evaluative research. Neither the practitioners who participate in the initiative nor the researchers who study it can claim that they are addressing the fundamental causes of social problems. As Pawson and Tilley put it: ‘Evaluations are … patently petty political’. In other words, government-sponsored initiatives treat certain social and political configurations as given, so that ‘the programmes which get evaluated are directed at reducing problems with systems, or ensuring the better operation of those systems’ (Pawson and Tilley, 1997 : 12). A third and final reservation concerns the short-term agenda that inevitably drives empirical research on this model. The agenda is that of the commissioning government department—which means the minister and his or her civil servants—and their thinking will tend to be dominated by immediate political considerations.

A distinctive form of evaluative research is that which sails under the ‘what works?’ banner. This question, which can of course be asked of almost anything, has come to function as a label applied to interventions which are geared to changing attitudes or behaviour. It tends to be asked especially of government-sponsored initiatives which, it is hoped, will have therapeutic effects—say, in diverting offenders from whatever patterns of behaviour (such as drug-taking) or whatever modes of thought (such as denying responsibility for their own actions) are deemed to underlie their offending behaviour. Research on this model is designed to test the cost-effectiveness of the intervention, for example, by examining changes in reconviction rates, or by interviewing the relevant population in order to gauge changes in behaviour and attitude.

Whilst each of the above is an immediately recognizable research stimulus, and between them they underpin much of the empirical research undertaken within law schools, it would be a mistake to imagine that empirical research necessarily falls into any one of these categories. Indeed, it is possible to conclude that the very best work transcends all of them, aiming as it does at a fundamental re-evaluation of the operation of a given area of law. In that sense it may not be designed to measure anything in particular, but rather to assist our understanding of the way law works, including the contribution it makes to addressing social problems and its impact upon the citizen. Accordingly, it will tend to explore many of the same themes as underpin the finest works of literature, or the great political debates. It may to some extent engage with the social policy agenda of the government of the day, but it will not be defined by it.

5 Research Methods

There are a host of different approaches to the task of gathering empirical research data, each reflecting different assumptions concerning what questions are worth asking, and what might constitute valid answers to those questions. Whilst the choice of research methods will reflect the researcher's views as to what knowledge is worth acquiring, those views will not necessarily be made explicit. Often they will be implicit in the choice of method and in the way in which evidence is presented. The natural scientist's preoccupation with rigorous scientific method is seldom paralleled in socio-legal research, most of which is conducted by academics who were not educated within that tradition and who, in any event, may doubt whether those techniques would serve their purpose. Thus, for example, the randomized controlled trial, which has long been the gold standard in medical research, hardly figures in research into legal processes. This is partly on ethical grounds, but also because empirical researchers in law are seldom concerned to explore the long-term impact of one specific intervention.

Much empirical legal research is descriptive in character, the aim being to examine the operation of legal processes and to demonstrate how these are perceived by all the parties concerned, perhaps especially by ‘consumers’ who do not normally have much opportunity to explain how the legal world feels to them. But empirical legal research is at least as much about providing explanations for social phenomena as it is descriptive. These explanations vary considerably in the level of sociological sophistication that is brought to bear, and readers may on occasion be tempted to ask whether the implicit value judgements which lie buried within them are ones which they would share. None the less, an explanation of sorts is being offered. Other empirical research is self-consciously evaluative, in which case there may be explicit design and delivery requirements which can be examined with a fair degree of objectivity.

As far as technical research skills are concerned, it is likely that few empirical legal researchers will have done more than dip into the various methodological texts that have been published in recent years. Research skills are picked up by observing more experienced colleagues, and there is nothing particularly complex or technical about the methods employed. This is not to say that these researchers lack skill, only that their skill does not lie in a mastery of research techniques. Essentially, it lies in their understanding of the fundamental purposes of the legal enterprise and their ability to deploy Wright Mills's ‘sociological imagination’ in order to re-describe and re-evaluate it. The creativity lies in marrying some aspects of the insider's legal knowledge with the sociologist's ability to discern the wider themes underlying the individual dramas of the law—or, in Wright Mills's terms, to discern the public issue within the private trouble (Wright Mills, 1959 ). The methods by which this is achieved—observing, interviewing, perusing documents—can have a somewhat homespun or improvised feel to them, but this is not necessarily a matter for regret, provided that the methods employed are appropriate as a means of exploring the issues which the researchers say they are trying to explore.

It is important, therefore, to recognize that empirical research in law is a creative process—as, probably, we would find is also true of research in the physical sciences, if only we understood it better. The difference is that one tends not to find within legal research any equivalent of the pure science model of hypothesis formulation, testing, and re-testing, leading to a finding which can then be further explored by means of other studies. Legal researchers seldom identify specific hypotheses which they mean to test, nor is there much enthusiasm for replicating earlier work. This is for three reasons: first, as we have said, most socio-legal research is essentially descriptive and explanatory, rather than evaluative; secondly, it is understood that the researcher's own value judgements lie buried within the research—so there is little enthusiasm for re-testing a ‘finding’ which everyone understands to be subjective to some degree; and thirdly, because much socio-legal scholarship tends to be focused upon process rather than outcome, it is only to a limited extent that its practitioners see themselves as building on earlier studies, thereby playing their part in a gradual accumulation of knowledge. The metaphor of ‘pushing back the frontiers’ tends to be employed only ironically within the socio-legal world. Rather, research is seen as a means of developing more satisfying descriptions and explanations of complex institutions and interactions—in which case it is not essential to replicate earlier methodologies, and indeed it can seem rather unexciting to do so.

5.1 Qualitative versus Quantitative Methods

The main distinction within empirical legal research is that between ‘qualitative’ and ‘quantitative’ approaches. The former involves an attempted in-depth exploration of legal processes, typically focusing on a modest number of interactions but viewing these from a variety of perspectives and perhaps over time. The strength of this approach lies in its capacity to reflect the complexity of legal processes, and the complexity of the relationship between process and outcome. It is also well suited to exploring the meaning which people place on legal events (Miles and Huberman, 1994 ). The research instruments (interview schedules, checklists, and so on) may be rudimentary, perhaps comprising no more than a few prompts for the observer, or reminders to the interviewer. This is a research style favoured by many experienced socio-legal researchers, including the authors, although it has to be accepted that the approach may raise questions as to the researchers' underlying attitudes and assumptions, and hence the validity and generalizability of their findings.

Qualitative research calls for fine judgement in deciding what significance to attach to elements of practice and to fleeting interactions within the individual dramas of the law, and this is a potential weakness as well as a strength. Qualitative researchers would claim that the accounts which they offer reflect the entirety of their research evidence, but this can never be proved given that it is not feasible to present more than snippets of that evidence, essentially for illustrative purposes in any published work. This is a research style in which the researchers first inform themselves and then seek to convey the fruits of that understanding to others. It follows that qualitative research, if it is to be of any value, cannot be conducted at second hand, for example, by a survey company; the aim is to improve understanding, not to gather evidence, and that improved understanding can only be achieved through immersion.

Quantitative approaches appear, at least on the face of it, to conform more closely to the pure scientific model. The objectives will usually be clearly identifiable within the research instruments. The study will be carried out on a large scale, possibly employing the services of a survey company such as the National Centre for Social Research, and the information recorded may allow complex statistical analysis. This approach has been adopted, for example, in the large-scale victimization studies that are now routinely conducted in very many countries in an effort to provide more reliable measures of crime than are to be found in official police records (e.g. van Dijk and Mayhew, 1997 ). So, provided the research questions can be answered by means of this kind of standardized interrogation, the social survey may, if well designed (i.e. with efficient sampling techniques and intelligible, discriminating questions), reveal much about the weight of experience and/or opinion within a given population. Another example of what can be achieved by this approach is the community survey designed to explore the extent of unmet legal need. A recent study of this type in the UK was the investigation conducted by Hazel Genn and the National Centre for Social Research into people's experience of ‘justiciable problems’ (Genn, 1999 ).

At the same time one should acknowledge the limitations of quantitative research methods, at least in respect of certain topics. First, such methods are not necessarily any more ‘objective’ than qualitative approaches in that the researcher's prior assumptions will, inevitably, be embedded in the design of questionnaires and other research instruments. Furthermore, there is no possibility of these biases being corrected as the research proceeds, as is at least possible when researchers are trying to educate themselves in the nuances of a subject. Secondly, surveys are only useful when they focus upon issues concerning which the informants have experience and can respond authoritatively. There is no point asking people about matters of which they have no direct experience and therefore nothing to offer beyond prejudice and received opinion. Yet that is sometimes done, and the resulting ‘findings’ reported as if they were of some value.

Increasingly, empirical legal researchers are employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, seeking to harness the strengths of both. For example, in-depth interviews may be conducted with comparatively few informants where there is need to explain the results of an earlier survey. Essentially, the data collection methods should reflect the focus of the research. A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches may or may not offer greater ‘explanatory completeness’ (Pawson and Tilley, 1997 ). One instance where this was achieved was in a recent study of bail decisions and plea bargaining (Kellough and Wortley, 2002 ) which employed a variety of methods, including tracking some 1,800 criminal cases through the courts and, in methodological contrast, face-to-face interviews with a limited number of offenders. The various data sources allowed for statistical identification of the factors that influence bail decisions, but the study also gave insight into the various ways that remands in custody may affect plea decisions and the prosecution's decision to withdraw charges.

5.2 Research Access

One difficulty which characteristically faces the socio-legal researcher is that of securing access to data. Even if funding is secured, access may be denied, or permission to study an organization's work will be granted only on restrictive conditions. There are considerable differences between institutions in this respect, with some having proved more open to research than others. For example, the police have been quite receptive to external research over the years, even though some of that research has been highly critical of their practice, but the judiciary (especially at the most senior levels) have been less welcoming. It is important to recognize, therefore, that empirical research may be conducted in circumstances that are far from ideal. Legal researchers may find that it is not possible for them to examine certain subjects, or not in the way that they would wish. Studies of sensitive subjects will often proceed on the basis of second-best approaches. Other topics are ruled out altogether, the jury's deliberations being one obvious example.

There are two ways of viewing this admittedly frustrating state of affairs. The first is that powerful institutional forces are conspiring to thwart independent academic enquiry. The second is that some empirical researchers are liable to abuse the privilege of research access in order to attack groups or institutions which they have long viewed in a critical light. We think both explanations contain an element of truth. Some legal institutions are beleaguered and respond in a defensive manner; but also, empirical researchers may pursue an agenda which is not rooted in their data, or not in the data upon which they claim to rely, and this in turn may make it more difficult for other members of the academic community to secure the access they need. Researchers who are granted privileged access to confidential material bear a heavy responsibility—first, to respect that confidentiality, but secondly, just as important, to represent their evidence faithfully, in all its complexity. Equally, major legal institutions ought to accept, as most, including the police, seem to do, that they are publicly accountable. One aspect of that accountability lies in their opening themselves up to reputable academic study.

6 The Relationship to Theory

Few empirical researchers in law make any claim that their research is located within some overarching theoretical framework derived from one of the core social science disciplines. In most legal research monographs there is seldom more than a polite nod in the direction of those explanatory frameworks, and when that happens there all too often appears to be no meaningful connection between the theory and the empirical investigation. Of course, all research is influenced by ideas about how groups and institutions function, or about ways in which individuals react to certain life circumstances. However, it is not clear whether we should refer to this knowledge as ‘theory’ or whether we should regard it as part of the store of wisdom which (to some degree) we all acquire as we move through life. Perhaps we should allow that researchers draw on a mix of folk wisdom and academic insights.

Unfortunately, those academic insights may be as contentious as the folk wisdom, so it is helpful if academic researchers are clear about their own core beliefs, and if they are prepared to articulate these. As we have already observed, this seldom happens, and the reader is left attempting to fathom the researcher's ideological stance and starting assumptions. We each have our favoured explanations of motive and behaviour, and there is virtually no research in law which is uninfluenced by this tendency to favour some explanations over others, and to apply a normative colouring to whatever actions are being described.

These sympathies and antipathies, favoured explanations and discarded explanations, underpin all socio-legal writing. Commonly, they will be reflected in the researchers' choice of subject, and even more so in their choice of informants, although it is not unknown for researchers to rely upon interviews with one set of respondents in order to construct accounts which are critical of almost every aspect of that group's professional practice. We should concede that ‘bias’ is inevitable in the sense that the researcher will feel more sympathy towards some informants than others, and will favour some explanations over others. It is impossible to determine what would constitute a neutral stance when interviewing or observing a given group of actors—for example, court officials, legal practitioners, police officers, judges, divorcing parents, criminal defendants, prisoners, or civil litigants. The question—‘whose side are you on?’—is one that is inevitably raised (Becker, 1967 ). The lesson that we draw from this is that it is important for the empiricist to be enthusiastic about evidence, and to want to be surprised by that evidence in the interests of developing an account which offers fresh insight. So far as possible ‘theory’ should grow out of the research data; it should not be the other way around. If the story of the research does not emerge from the data, one may question the decision to undertake empirical research in the first place. The research becomes little more than a cosmetic exercise, designed to add weight to an already well-honed series of descriptions and explanations.

Having said that, describing the world ‘as it is’ is inevitably a problematic undertaking, and empirical researchers do not begin with a clean slate. They will have, from the outset, at least a rudimentary conceptual framework. This will include the main actors and activities to be examined, key relationships to be explored, and questions that they hope to answer. This early conceptualizing of the subject-matter is necessary in order to give clarity and focus, and also to avoid indiscriminate data collection (Miles and Huberman, 1994 ). This, however, is only the beginning of the interpretative task. The essence of the empirical approach lies not only in collecting relevant materials through the development of appropriate research techniques, but in making sense of that material as it is being collected. All interviews, all observations, and all documentary materials have to be given meaning by the researcher. It is only if empirical research is understood to be interpretative that it has some prospect of being anything other than ephemeral. If, on the other hand, empirical research is conceived as an attempt to keep pace with the latest changes in law and procedure in order to describe the impact of these changes, then it may be of some immediate interest to policy-makers and practitioners but that interest will not be sustained. This is because legal processes tend not to change very rapidly, and in many of their more fundamental aspects they hardly change at all. Accordingly, empirical research is devalued if it is regarded primarily as a means of monitoring and evaluating new initiatives. It ought to be seen, instead, as a means of exploring those aspects of law and legal practice which are enduring and which lie at the heart of the enterprise.

The following passage, taken from the final paragraph of a research monograph exploring one ‘hidden’ area of family law—the settlement of financial disputes by the parties' lawyers—is the kind of research output we have in mind:

For the foreseeable future some elements at least of these disputes will continue to be handled by lawyers. But the system was not designed to cope with the present volume of cases and, unsurprisingly, it has many weaknesses. We have identified, in particular: the very great premium which is placed on the energy and inventiveness of individual practitioners; the ponderousness of the process and the opportunity, if either party is so minded, to create delay at every stage; the failure, in many instances, to rectify the bargaining endowments conferred by an ability to conceal resources or to tolerate a postponed resolution; the way in which a settlement culture can override traditional legal values so that the negotiation process becomes no more than a search for compromise; the failure to distinguish between two distinct objectives—advancing the process and promoting settlement—so that these are conflated; and, finally, courts' reluctance or inability to enforce their own procedural orders. (Davis et al ., 1994 : 273)

This analysis is not located within some overarching sociological theory; but nor is it ephemeral. The researchers have drawn on the evidence of a large number of interactions in order to capture, as they see it, the fundamentals of legal practice in this area. It is questionable whether empiricism can deliver more than this. These authors might have attempted a different level of explanation, perhaps one that was rooted in an overarching theory of professionalism, but it would have been difficult for them in that case to assert that the explanation emerged from their data.

7 Influence upon Law and Social Policy

Given that empirical researchers are interested in the social policy of the law, an obvious question arises as to whether empirical research findings do indeed exert some influence, partly in relation to reform of the substantive law, but also in relation to practice and procedure. It has been claimed that the direction of family law, in particular, has been over-influenced by empirical research findings of dubious validity (Deech, 1984 ), and no doubt the same point could be made in relation to other areas of legal practice. However, the more generally accepted view appears to be that the relationship between research and policy, or research and law reform, is extremely tenuous (Thomas, 1985 ). This is despite the fact that much empirical research is, either directly or indirectly, state-funded, in which case it might be anticipated that researchers would wish to address issues that are of immediate concern to government, and furthermore that government would be interested in this research evidence and would use it to inform their policies in relation to legal and social issues. We suspect that both sides to this ‘contract’ would like to believe that this is what happens. On the government side, successive administrations of every hue have been heard to claim that their policies are ‘evidence-led’, whilst empirical researchers, for their part, like to feel that they are of some use, and that they exert influence. Many engage in the business of empirical research because they want to bring about social change.

We suspect that the limitations of the empirical approach lie at least as much with the paucity of imagination displayed by some researchers as they do with a slavish adherence to the government's agenda. The relationship between the government ‘customer’ and the empirical research ‘contractor’ has, over the past forty years, proved something of a disappointment to both. Social policy research has struggled to exert its influence alongside all the other forces bearing upon government, and researchers whose principal motivation has been to influence policy often feel, if not ignored, then manipulated and abused. This is despite the fact that it sometimes suits both sides to pretend that the research in question has made a difference.

Difficulties in the relationship between researchers and policy-makers are perhaps most apparent in disputes which centre on the publication of results. The problems can be acute when the research findings are embarrassing to the government or are believed to offer a distorted and misleading view of the activities of a particular organization. Hostility to publication plans is by no means uncommon, and both authors have experienced it on occasions. A challenge to research findings, whether in private or in public, is invariably an unpleasant experience for the researcher in question and can lead to severe personal and professional difficulties (Baldwin and McConville, 1977 ). When government, or government agencies, attempt to suppress publication of research findings, the academic community has an obligation to resist. This is why contractual arrangements entered into when research is commissioned need to be considered very carefully lest the right to publish be compromised. Government will often find it uncomfortable to allow publication, but that discomfort cannot be avoided. Of course, those who are on the receiving end of research, whether as subjects or as funders, have a right to see drafts prior to publication, and they may wish to comment in uncompromising terms or ultimately to distance themselves from the research findings as these are presented. But, if the integrity and independence of the researcher are to be maintained, that right must fall short of the power of veto.

Partly this problem reflects the way in which research is commissioned in the first place. Government is not always skilled in determining what it needs to know and what kind of research might fit the bill. In fact, research can be commissioned for a number of disreputable, as well as reputable reasons. The work of Thomas and Weiss suggests that research in law and the social sciences is employed for a number of purposes that cannot be openly acknowledged (Thomas, 1985 ; Weiss, 1978 ). These are some of the reasons suggested by Carol Weiss:

as political ammunition;

to delay action;

to avoid taking responsibility for a decision;

to win kudos for a successful innovation;

to discredit a disliked policy;

to maintain the prestige of a government department by supporting well-regarded researchers.

Experienced socio-legal researchers will recognize most of the above list, and they could probably add other equally disreputable items from their own experience. However, it seems to us inevitable that the relationship between research and policy will seldom be direct or straightforward. Government will always use research to serve political ends, and it will likewise do its best to ignore those findings which are politically inconvenient. We would prefer to emphasize independence rather than influence. The key for empirical researchers is to maintain their independence of government (and of any other research customers) in order fully to do justice to the research evidence.

This independence needs to be jealously guarded by the academic community, and for the most part we believe it is. Empirical research in law is often critical of existing policy and practice, and that is appropriate since the research ‘story’ ought to provide an alternative to the accounts which emerge from government or, indeed, from practitioners. Empirical research, in other words, has a debunking tendency. This, in turn, may bring it under attack (sometimes in private, less often in public) from members of the legal profession, the judiciary, or government representatives. This is what one comes to expect. There is inevitably some tension within these relationships, so it is important that those agencies which are liable to be criticized (or to be presented in a light not entirely consistent with the way they choose to present themselves) accept that this is a legitimate academic function and one that is, ultimately, in the public interest.

This brings us back to influence. Most empirical researchers of any experience appreciate that research findings which reinforce the prevailing thinking of the commissioning government department are more likely to be referred to, and therefore to appear to be influential, than are those which run counter to it. Where the research evidence points in an uncomfortable direction it is not difficult for policy-makers to ignore it.

To gain some impression of how limited the influence of researchers can be if their results do not suit the prevailing mood, and how easy it is for policy-makers to disregard their work if they are so minded, one need only consider what has happened in the criminal justice arena in the past twenty years. Punitive law and order policies have been adopted by many Western governments, notwithstanding the empirical research evidence that points to the dangers of such policies. The overwhelming weight of the research and writing produced by generations of criminologists, most of it funded by governments, points to the ineffectiveness of ‘crackdowns’ on crime, ‘wars’ on drugs, tough deterrent sentencing, and the like. Yet none of this evidence has succeeded in dissuading governments from following their own tough ‘law and order’ policies. The fact is that policies based on ‘commonsense’ solutions to crime problems (mandatory sentencing, deterrent sentencing for drug offenders, more liberal use of imprisonment, and so on) carry great electoral appeal, however much they may fly in the fact of empirical research findings. Garland observes that ‘Policy measures [in the United States and the UK] are constructed in ways that appear to value political advantage and public opinion over the views of experts and the evidence of research’ (2001: 13), and he offers a long list of contemporary penal policies (including ‘prison works’, ‘three-strikes-and-you're-out’, ‘no frills prisons’, and ‘zero-tolerance’) to illustrate the point. Nor have protests about these policies in criminological journals cut much ice with policy-makers. It is instructive in this context to consider the reaction of a UK government minister in the 1980s to a research finding that prosecutors at a certain court were sometimes able to secure the listing of a particular trial before a particular judge. He responded: ‘It does not happen, and if it does, it should not’. Another frequent response by policy-makers who wish to dismiss unpalatable research findings is to concede that the research may have been accurate at the time it was carried out, but to assert that practice has since changed in some fundamental way, so that the researchers' conclusions are no longer valid.

We regard this evidence of tension between government and members of the academic community as an inevitable consequence of the proximity of some research to the political process: researchers cannot control the reception of their work by policy-makers, and should not become too agitated if that reception is not as they would wish. Policies that carry electoral appeal, or which are congenial to ministers for ideological reasons, are routinely pursued in the face of contrary advice from academic experts who contend that the available evidence points in a different direction.

The conclusion that we draw from this is not necessarily dispiriting. It is inevitable that the development of social policy in contentious areas will reflect prejudice, gut instinct, and vested interests, as well as the accumulated wisdom of practitioners and researchers over many years. The fact that this research wisdom is ‘accumulated’, and not just the product of the latest monitoring exercise, is in our view a key feature. This is consistent with Weiss's ‘enlightenment’ or ‘knowledge creep’ theory, under which the most common mode of research use ‘is the diffuse and undirected infiltration of research ideas into [decision-makers'] understanding of the world’ (Weiss, 1978 ).

It is essential, therefore, to take a long-term view of the profound social issues which confront policy-makers in, for example, criminal justice and penology. We would prefer empirical researchers also to take this long-term view, in order to address the fundamentals of law and practice in these areas. Of course there are tensions here with the political imperatives with which ministers and civil servants must wrestle on a daily basis. But it would be deeply regrettable were empirical research in law to be conceived as a series of short-term evaluations. One has to hope that government will continue to sponsor research, whilst at the same time accepting that it is not well placed to determine what kinds of evidence will ultimately prove to be of greatest value. This calls for a continuing dialogue between researchers and policy-makers, and a constructive spirit on the part of both.

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• v.120(41); 2023 Oct 10
• PMC10576109

Science, Evidence, Law, and Justice

Science, evidence, law, and justice, thomas d. albright.

a The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA 92037

David Baltimore

b California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125

Anne-Marie Mazza

c The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC 20001

Jennifer L. Mnookin

d University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706

David S. Tatel

e United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Washington, DC 20001

For nearly 25 y, the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL), of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, has brought together distinguished members of the science and law communities to stimulate discussions that would lead to a better understanding of the role of science in legal decisions and government policies and to a better understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern the conduct of science. Under the leadership of recent CSTL co-chairs David Baltimore and David Tatel, and CSTL director Anne-Marie Mazza, the committee has overseen many interdisciplinary discussions and workshops, such as the international summits on human genome editing and the science of implicit bias, and has delivered advisory consensus reports focusing on topics of broad societal importance, such as dual use research in the life sciences, voting systems, and advances in neural science research using organoids and chimeras. One of the most influential CSTL activities concerns the use of forensic evidence by law enforcement and the courts, with emphasis on the scientific validity of forensic methods and the role of forensic testimony in bringing about justice. As coeditors of this Special Feature, CSTL alumni Tom Albright and Jennifer Mnookin have recruited articles at the intersection of science and law that reveal an emerging scientific revolution of forensic practice, which we hope will engage a broad community of scientists, legal scholars, and members of the public with interest in science-based legal policy and justice reform.

The scientific enterprise is often recognized as the most powerful contributor to our collective knowledge and well-being, propelling discoveries, guiding difficult decisions, and generating transformative instruments and techniques. While the advances of science thus create remarkable new opportunities for understanding and engaging with the natural world, it is equally obvious that the forward march of science produces challenges as well as benefits. A widely promoted scientific invention may not be safe, or its use may sacrifice civil liberties, or have disparate impact on different segments of the population. Real or perceived benefits of an invention may, nonetheless, lead to pressure for rapid deployment before risks have been adequately assessed and mitigated. Consider, for example, as just three instances of many, the recent meteoric rise of algorithms for assessing person identity from facial images, or rapidly developing large language model AIs, or our ability to edit genetic code. In each case, widespread deployment may well occur before the risks and benefits have been carefully assessed or any thoughtful regulatory structure created to guide its operation.

This disconnect between scientific advances and legal policy development is hardly new. The development of a comprehensive regulatory framework for drug safety and efficacy lagged decades behind the fast-moving science of drug development ( 1 – 3 ). Physician-entrepreneurs of the 1940s and 1950s removed large parts of the human brain as treatment for mental health disorders, based on dubious theory, no meaningful validation, and little government oversight ( 4 , 5 ). Today, we routinely witness promotions of self-driving cars and tools for cognitive enhancement in a society that possesses limited understanding of the efficacy, risks, and liabilities of emerging technologies. Conversely, while our courts and legislatures promote carefully worded standards to guard against “junk science” in litigation, both the scientific community and much of the legal community recognize that these standards, in practice, are often leaky, ineffective, and inadequate as a check on the use of shoddy science in the legal system.

The Committee on Science, Technology, and Law

The foregoing examples highlight the need for a closer intellectual partnership between the disciplines of science and law. To that end, and in partial response to recent Supreme Court decisions on scientific evidence ( 6 – 8 ), the leadership of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) entered into discussions in the late 1990 s about establishing a working group for this purpose. The creation of a standing committee within the National Academies devoted to issues at the interface of science and law was not an easy decision. Many scientists within the National Academies viewed the sometimes brutal adversarial nature of the courtroom, and legal culture more generally, as an unsuitable focus for an institution devoted to the rigorous scholarly search for scientific truth. Nonetheless, the need for a prominent forum for representatives of these communities to get to know each other, understand each others’ cultures, and exchange ideas was becoming more and more evident.

In March 2000, Donald Kennedy and Richard Merrill convened the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law (CSTL), a new standing committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Kennedy and Merrill sought to bring together distinguished members of the science and law communities to stimulate discussions that would lead to a better understanding of the role of science in legal decisions and government policies and to a better understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks that govern the conduct of science. At biannual meetings, scientists and members of the legal community, including members of the legal academy and judiciary, were encouraged to bring to the committee topics of national importance that would be best addressed from the perspective of both communities. Sessions at each meeting were built around controversial or emerging issues and often led to the development of project ideas for consensus studies and convening activities.

At the time it was established, Kennedy and Merrill noted that CSTL could “not hope to canvass the entire terrain. Instead, we hope to become one of several contributors to the growing dialogue between science, engineering, and law; a supporter of initiatives by other organizations; and a catalyst for promoting productive collaboration among participants from all affected disciplines.” Nearly 25 y later, it is probably fair to say that Kennedy and Merrill could never have envisaged either the wide range of topics that CSTL would explore or the impact of these explorations.

In 2009, Kennedy and Merrill passed leadership of CSTL to Richard Meserve and David Korn, and in 2015, Meserve and Korn passed leadership of the committee to David Baltimore and David Tatel (coauthors of this Introduction ). In 2023, the baton was passed again to Martha Minow and Harold Varmus. And with hindsight, it is clear that the National Academies’ and Kennedy and Merrill’s decision to establish CSTL was prescient.

Many areas of intersection between the disciplines of science and law involve developing, regulating, preventing, or promoting activities that have broad societal impact. Scientific knowledge is commonly used, for example, to guide regulation of environmental policy, medical practice, energy production, transportation safety, economic welfare, education, security, and defense. Conversely, law is often used to control applications of science, and technology born from it, that may compromise safety or individual freedoms. CSTL has ventured into a substantial set of these domains, with discussions, workshops, and reports focusing on diverse topics such as genome editing, climate intervention, implicit racial bias, disinformation in social media, synthetic biology, and voting systems.

Science, Law, and Forensics

One of the largest footprints of CSTL—and arguably the most impactful of all science-law engagements today—is forensics. * In most legal contexts, forensic practices seek evidence of cause and responsibility for past actions that may be criminal and/or may have caused or produced loss or harm to others. Methods for doing so involve comparison of artifacts (e.g., a bullet shell casing) found at a particular location with a model or specimen (a shell casing from a specific gun) inspired by a hypothesis about the source of the artifacts (such as a suspect’s criminal activity). The comparison yields a classification decision (“inclusion” vs. “exclusion”, or “match” vs. “nonmatch”) based on a criterion level of similarity between the objects of comparison. A conclusion of inclusion or match supports the underlying hypothesis about source and may justify further investigation as well as criminal or civil action. For some forensic methods, such as those used for DNA or latent fingerprint examination, a match may even be deemed sufficient evidence, standing alone, to support a conviction.

There are many different forensic subdisciplines practiced today that follow this same general strategy, which can be taxonomized based on the types of media and measurement tools employed ( Fig. 1 , Left ). Some involve instrument-based measurements (e.g., chromatography) and comparisons of physical, chemical, or biological substances. For example, the chemical components of a paint scraping found on a stone wall (artifact) may be assessed and compared with paint from a suspect’s car (model). Although interesting questions sometimes arise about precision of these methods, the underlying measurements, comparison processes, and criteria for classification are transparent and easily interrogated, and the operating principles are readily interpretable. All of this information can be used to predict decision accuracy.

Overview of topics covered in this PNAS Special Feature Issue on Science, Evidence, Law, and Justice. The leftmost panel contains a taxonomy of traditional forensic subdisciplines. The remaining panels correspond to themes addressed by the articles in this collection. Corresponding authors are indicated below the themes (some articles overlap multiple themes).

Another common category of forensic analysis involves human measurement and comparison of visually patterned impressions, such as fingerprints and tool marks. Unlike instrument-based methods, human visual pattern comparison does not yield ready access to the underlying measure of similarity of artifact and model or to the criterion level of similarity used for the classification decision. In essence, a trained examiner looks at the comparison and determines whether the observed similarities provide an adequate basis for a match, but the standards an expert uses for such a judgment are currently neither statistical nor quantified. These methods simply provide the end result, which makes inferences about the accuracy of that decision difficult, if not impossible. † The accuracy of a forensic conclusion, however, is what the court really needs to know.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, practitioners of forensic pattern comparison methods asserted that their accuracy was a function of their experience ( 9 , 10 ):

• Court: “What’s your error rate?”
• Forensic Witness: “Zero.”
• Court: “How can it be zero?”
• Forensic Witness: “Well, in every case I’ve testified, the guy’s been convicted.” ‡

Backed by the snowballing effect of legal precedent, and perhaps a limited appreciation of probability and statistics, claims of experience have routinely grounded the admission of forensic expert testimony in criminal trials. While few would deny the value of experience, it cannot substitute for empirical evidence of validity, assessed through carefully designed studies to determine the probability that a forensic method provides the correct answer ( 11 ). (Experienced psychics may well be no more accurate than inexperienced ones.) Spurred to action in the 1990 s by the Supreme Court’s Daubert ruling on the validity of scientific evidence ( 6 ), the rise and scientific scrutiny of DNA evidence ( 12 ), and the gut-wrenching impact of wrongful convictions ( 13 )—the vast majority of whom are people of color—both scientific and legal communities took increasing notice of the problem of forensic validity.

Beginning in 2007, urged on by leaders in the forensic science community, an expert committee of scientists, statisticians, and legal professionals was convened by the National Academy of Sciences under the auspices of CSTL to perform a comprehensive evaluation of forensic practices in the United States. This congressionally mandated study, published in 2009 ( 10 ), identified significant weaknesses associated with validation, training, and reporting in forensic practice and included detailed recommendations for science-based reform. § These recommendations led to creation of the short-lived National Commission on Forensic Science (an advisory body to the US Department of Justice) ( 14 ), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) operation known as the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC), the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE), which supports NIST's efforts to advance the utility of statistical methods for forensic analysis, and to a variety of grass-roots efforts to improve and standardize forensic practice. In 2015, President Obama asked the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to further evaluate needs within the forensic science community, the product of which was a 2016 report that raised concerns and recommendations specific to human pattern comparison methods ( 15 ).

These scientific evaluations highlight three broad principles for forensic reform in the interest of justice:

• (1) A forensic method to be used as a basis for fateful decisions must be empirically validated by means of careful studies using known source samples—samples for which the correct classification decision is known—to yield a robust quantitative measure of the method’s accuracy.
• (2) Scientific research should be conducted to assess sensory, perceptual, and cognitive factors that create uncertainty and engender bias in the context of pattern comparison, thus limiting accuracy, and to identify ways of lessening those effects.
• (3) Law enforcement and the courts—the end users of forensic conclusions—must be made aware of limits on accuracy and incorporate growing scientific knowledge that bears on the application of forensic testimony to the facts of a case at hand.

In the spirit of these principles—method validation, assessment and mitigation of accuracy-limiting factors, and education of the users of forensic testimony—we have commissioned eight articles to address the potential for science-based reform from several distinct vantage points. Contributing authors include cognitive, neural, and computer scientists, experimental psychologists, legal scholars and judges, and the director of a major city crime lab, all of whom have pioneered application of their professions to a convergence of science and law in the interest of justice. The stories told here explore myriad issues ranging from the messy, urgent, disturbing, and endlessly frustrating details of forensic evidence collection and analysis, to the carefully crafted but leaky rules by which that evidence contributes to justice. In the spaces in between, law professors and scientists promote normative standards and offer scientific insights that can improve courtroom decisions.

These articles comprise four overlapping themes ( Fig. 1 ):

• (1) The Intake: Operation of a crime lab, where forensic evidence enters the justice system and is subjected to a variety of analyses;
• (2) The Revolution: Scientific advances that are now rewriting the script for forensic investigation;
• (3) The New Threats: Risks to justice posed by new technologies that render decisions by invasive and inscrutable processes; and
• (4) The Courts: Rules for use of scientific evidence by the courts and their varying interpretations by the judiciary.

The Intake: Operation of a Crime Lab

In an ideal world, criminal investigation and prosecution build upon evidence that neatly conforms to the standards of modern science. Television crime shows notwithstanding, good forensic evidence is often hard to collect, difficult to keep track of, and harder to analyze. Peter Stout, director of the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC)—one of the largest crime labs in the country—opens this collection of articles with a marvelous first-person narrative of the challenges that arise from this type of operation ( Fig. 1 , second panel) ( 16 ). Under Stout’s leadership, HFSC rose from the ashes of a notorious public failure of justice ( 17 ), in which scientific principles and controlled practice were little to be seen ( 18 ), to become an exemplar of forensic science for the public good ( 19 , 20 ). One of the most important features of this new crime lab is that it operates as an independent contributor ¶ to a coherent, highly integrated, and scientifically grounded system of governance, law enforcement, forensic investigation, and judicial practice. All of these components aim to be accountable to numerous stakeholders, including the victims and their families.

Among many operating challenges, Stout relates the task of implementing “blind testing” of forensic examiners—a performance evaluation procedure in which examiners are tested using “fake” evidence for which the correct classification is known. Blind testing has been deemed imperative by academic analysts as a means to assess accuracy but has often been viewed by practitioners as being too difficult, too impracticable, or downright impossible to implement. Houston has taken on this challenge. The trick is to make this contrivance indistinguishable from real evidence, so that examiners bring the same expectations to the table and do not realize that they are being tested, which might influence their decisions. With tones of dark humor, Stout tells us that real evidence is often of such appallingly bad quality that it is difficult to imitate: “Evidence comes from the real world and will never be clean or designed to be reproducible like a research project. Odds are good that it is going to be decayed, smelly, sticky, foul and unusual.” While other articles in this collection highlight sensible and righteous strategies to improve the contributions of science to justice, Stout’s perspective anchors us first in the harsh, imperfect, costly, and frequently demoralizing world of forensic evidence: “Everything we do is the remains of someone’s worst day.”

Contextual Bias in Forensic Examination.

For human pattern comparison disciplines, crime labs are where initial assessments of pattern similarity and classification decisions are made by forensic examiners ( Fig. 1 , second panel). Under conditions of uncertainty, these decisions are highly susceptible to contextual bias. For example, a fingerprint examiner may unconsciously lower their threshold for an inclusion decision after viewing photos of mutilated homicide victims ( 21 ). In recognition of this potential for bias, some crime labs have adopted strategies to restrict access to information that is not “task relevant” ( 22 ), such that, for example, the fingerprint examiner is not privy to any information about an investigation other than prints themselves. A persistent counterargument is that the additional information afforded by context contributes to more accurate decisions ( 23 – 25 ). Employing a Bayesian network model of the forensic decision process, Bill Thompson’s research article in this collection examines the impact of varying decision thresholds on probabilities of true and false convictions ( 26 ). Thompson’s thoughtful analysis proves that use of lower decision thresholds, induced by task-irrelevant information, can markedly increase—not decrease—the risk of convicting an innocent person. More generally, this analysis reveals that small changes in decision threshold can have a large impact on accuracy, which calls into question accuracy claims drawn from traditional nonblinded validation studies, where examiner expectations and decision thresholds may differ significantly from real forensic casework. This type of quantitative modeling focused on a specific question of practice is precisely what is needed to overcome longstanding but errant forensic logic and strategy.

The Revolution: Wrongful Conviction, Empirical Frameworks, and the Science of Human Information Processing

• “The debate and rigor of academic science is now influencing much of forensic science and that is the most significant change from the past” ( 27 ).

This recent quote from the National Institute of Justice captures the spirit of the scientific revolution that we are now witnessing in forensics. Many important scientific and technical developments ( Fig. 1 , third panel) have a) highlighted weaknesses and risks associated with forensic practice, b) drawn the attention of basic scientists with expertise in human decision-making and predictive modeling, and c) become poised to revolutionize forensic theory and practice.

Exposing Wrongful Conviction.

Concerns about wrongful conviction date at least to the nineteenth century. At the same time, many legal professionals believed that real-world wrongful convictions for serious crimes were virtually nonexistent; the eminent Judge Learned Hand opined in 1923 that while the “ghost of the innocent man convicted” may haunt us, “it is an unreal dream” ( 28 ). In the 1980 s, however, following the invention of a chemical method known as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Learned Hand was proven wrong. PCR made it possible to amplify minute quantities of DNA recovered from a crime scene, such that the forensic genotype could be assessed and compared with that from people accused or convicted. This new forensic tool provided an independent and soundly science-based means to evaluate conclusions drawn from older forensic pattern comparison methods (as well as other forms of evidence, like eyewitness testimony and confessions). This process identified scores, and eventually hundreds, of prisoners who, it turns out, are not evidentially associated with biological material linked to the crime for which they had been convicted. This naturally casts significant doubt on the validity of the older forensic methods, many of which are still in common use and frequently still deemed admissible as evidence in litigation. It also triggered increased concerns about the accuracy of other forms of evidence ranging from eyewitness identification to jailhouse snitches.

Establishing an Empirical Framework.

In their article for this collection ( 29 ), Nick Scurich, David Faigman, and Tom Albright stress the importance of adopting a sound empirical framework. Human pattern comparison disciplines have long lacked such a framework. Methods in common use today were originally conceived to improve law enforcement, and they were embraced because it seemed eminently plausible that people could compare and judge the similarity of things they observe. After all, we visually compare things all the time. We locate our car in the parking lot, we choose the ripest piece of fruit in the basket, or we identify our friend in the crowd. We might also instantly recognize our mother’s voice on the telephone or identify our spouse’s handwriting. However useful these abilities may be in everyday life, limits to the accuracy of our judgments are not typically tested, nor is our performance in any way scientific or based on explicit quantitative standards. In the past (and sometimes this practice, unfortunately, continues), forensic examiners would feint at scientific credibility by asserting that their opinions about the similarity of two visual patterns were accurate “to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty,” # which carries about as much quantitative weight and probative value in the pattern vision domain as the assertion that the “rug really tied the room together” ( 30 ).

If we are to make comparative judgments that have real value for legal decisions, then performance standards must be sought within a well-defined empirical framework, rooted in the scientific method. This includes defining hypotheses and empirical questions, such as the following: What is the minimum discriminable difference for a given pattern type? What is the accuracy of the method used for discrimination? What are causes of error? It also includes a) employing suitable research methods and designing well-controlled experiments that yield reliable answers to these questions, and b) use of appropriate statistical tools and models, such that answers can be reported and conclusions can be drawn with known degrees of certainty. Forensic practice is in the still-early stages of developing an empirical framework of this sort, which has opened the field to evaluation from a perspective based in the modern sciences of human information processing.

How People Make Decisions Based on Sensory Information.

Forensic patterns contain information, meaning that pattern comparison disciplines are necessarily dependent upon human brain systems for information processing, which include sensation, perception, memory, categorization, and choice. The science of these human information processing systems has grown by leaps and bounds. Much is now known about the operating characteristics of these systems, which reveal human aptitudes and weaknesses on tasks that rely upon stimulus detection, discrimination, selective attention, memory retrieval, and object recognition. Operating without this knowledge, as most human pattern matching disciplines have done for decades, is analogous to operating a mass spectrometer for chemical analysis of forensic samples without a user manual. ||

These advances in sciences of human information processing have been complemented by improvements in the use and sophistication of statistical tools, including the application of principles from signal detection theory to evaluate decisions made by eyewitnesses ( 31 , 32 ) and trained forensic examiners ( 33 – 35 ). These approaches suggest new behavioral and cognitive strategies for retrieving memories, limiting opportunities for bias, and improving decision-making by human observers. They also offer means to identify and precisely assess specific factors that influence examiner performance. Tools for rigorous predictive modeling—Bayesian inference, multivariate regression, and neural networks—have also entered the field with much promise, as illustrated, for example, by Thompson’s research article in this collection ( 26 ), highlighted above. These powerful tools also pose considerable risk, as Brandon Garrett and Cynthia Rudin argue in their essay for this collection (see below) ( 36 ).

The Vanguard of Reform.

Jay Koehler, Jennifer Mnookin, and Michael Saks, a team of psychologists and legal scholars, offer a perspective on the scientific reinvention of forensics and present a coherent vision—and an emerging reality—of forensics either rewritten as sound science or cast aside ( 37 ). This reinvention consists, in part, of a shift of emphasis from the attributes of the expert conveying scientific testimony to the underlying scientific knowledge as it bears on the question before the court. As Tom Albright notes in a separate piece highlighted below ( 38 ), there has been a fair amount of waffling about the relative importance of scientific knowledge vs. the expert in the historical development of rules for the use of scientific evidence in litigation. Koehler et al. demonstrate a critical evolution along these lines among the users of forensic testimony—primarily the courts—from a “trust the examiner” zeitgeist to a “trust the scientific method” approach.

The perspective from Koehler et al. also offers a rich summary of scientific and legal policy ideas that have been aired in the reformist community in recent years and in some cases have become state of the art. Many of these ideas are rooted in key scientific advances and include a) improvements in methods for validation of forensic tools, such that courts can receive credible estimates of the accuracy of those tools when presented as the basis of scientific evidence in litigation; b) procedural reforms to reduce the influence of bias in the judgment and interpretation of forensic evidence; and c) a new reckoning of the longstanding but decidedly unscientific categorical approach to forensic conclusions and reporting (e.g., “it’s a match!”). On many of these topics, Koehler et al. go beyond characterization of the problems; they offer valuable suggestions for improvement.

These authors also highlight important, albeit incremental, policy proposals from advisory bodies, such as the NIST Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science. But in the end, Koehler et al. stress that the big remaining problem lies with the courts: “if judges took seriously their duties under the Daubert line of cases (and state equivalents) and refused to admit insufficiently validated claims, the forensic sciences would adopt scientific practices more quickly and completely. Unfortunately, few courts have been so bold.” This abdication of gatekeeping responsibility by the courts is a recurring theme of articles in this collection, which we highlight below in a broader discussion of cause and resolution.

It is worth noting here that many other applied sciences that rely upon accurate high-stakes decisions in the face of sensory uncertainty and pressure of time, such as identifying tumors or weapons in radiographic images ( 39 – 41 ), prediction of severe weather events ( 42 ), or flying high-performance jet planes ( 43 , 44 ), have successfully undergone scientific reinvention. So too must forensic practice continue down this emerging, if faltering, path, for the sake of accuracy and for justice.

Eyewitness Identification: The Other Forensic Pattern Comparison Discipline.

Eyewitness identification is a widely used forensic pattern comparison tool that has become notorious for its high probability of failure: Misidentifications contribute to about 70% of DNA-confirmed wrongful convictions ( 13 , 45 ). The eyewitness problem was not tackled in either the 2009 NAS report on forensics or the 2016 PCAST report, but it has been addressed in several critical reviews. These include a 2014 NAS consensus report ( 46 ), which was also prepared under the auspices of CSTL by a committee charged with evaluating the underlying science and procedures for collection and use of eyewitness testimony by law enforcement and the courts.

In the practical features of its use, eyewitness identification differs from most other pattern comparison procedures in three respects: 1) The evidence is testimonial; it is not based on any physical artifacts from the crime scene; 2) The comparison is not made between two simultaneously present sensory patterns; it is made between present sensory patterns and a remembered sensory pattern; and 3) The witness is not an “expert” in the sense of certified forensic examiners (though most adults have considerable experience and expertise with facial recognition). Despite these differences, the underlying human information processing task relies on the same brain systems for sensation, perception, cognition, and choice. Understanding of the problem has benefitted greatly from scientific advances in those areas.

Applied eyewitness studies represent, to date, some of the richest injections of modern science into any area of forensic analysis. Most of the recent focus has been on identifying and mitigating factors that affect witness performance ( 47 ), as defined by the ability to discriminate a perpetrator from an innocent suspect in a lineup ( 31 ) and by identification accuracy ( 48 ). While many such factors have been studied, until recently little attention has been paid to the way that individual facial images appear in a lineup. In real casework, methods of lineup presentation have become simplified to an extreme, in part because of resource limitations and because lineups must be constructed ad hoc for every case. With this simplification has come a significant reduction of sensory information that might otherwise be used for identification. To wit, lineups today rarely employ live participants; instead, they employ photographs, which are typically en face and lack visual stereoscopic and motion cues that could reveal three-dimensional (3D) structure. They are absent whole-body information, such as posture and gait, and they are often monochromatic. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear from the basic science of visual object recognition that performance is better when more information-bearing cues are available to the observer ( 49 , 50 ).

A new study by Heather Flowe and colleagues ( 51 ), reported in this collection, takes up this issue of available cues for eyewitness identification using interactive viewing of lineup faces, in which 3D facial images are rotated back and forth at will by the witness. The beauty of this manipulation is that a) the 3D images themselves necessarily provide more cues to inform object recognition, and b) the interactive feature enables a witness to more readily identify and rely upon those cues that are truly “diagnostic,” in the sense that they coincide with memory of the perpetrator but are not shared by all of the lineup faces ( 52 ). The empirical result is that the 3D interactive procedure markedly improves, relative to traditional lineups, the ability of eyewitnesses to discriminate perpetrators from innocent suspects, thus reducing the probabilities of misidentification and wrongful conviction. This is a thoughtful example of how good science and new technologies, which are today relatively inexpensive and simple to use, have the potential to transform valued forensic practices and improve the quality of justice.

The New Threats: Loss of Privacy and Transparency

Forensic investigation is fundamentally about figuring out what happened and who is responsible. The discipline is, in that sense, particularly prone to uses that risk invasion of privacy. A crime scene investigation may turn up evidence that compromises the anonymity—and perhaps also the livelihood, marital welfare, or freedom—of a person having nothing to do with the crime. Recent scientific and technological advances have taken this potential for collateral damage to a new level with the development of highly accurate computer algorithms for identification of patterns in visual images and other forms of data. These algorithms lie at the heart of new surveillance and monitoring systems, such as automated face recognition, that are rapidly growing in use and sophistication. The appeal of this technology is both convenience—paperless border crossings and access to select venues—and security—access restriction and forensic identification of criminal perpetrators ( 53 ). But the automated surveillance net also collects information about innocent people and is oftentimes prone to disparate impact (e.g., misidentification of people of color) ( 54 ). In a free society, we might trust that information about our private lives is treated with discretion, at least by government actors—including destruction of digital information acquired through broad surveillance and trolling—and that algorithmic bias is recognized and corrected. But without clear regulation and enforcement, these expectations may be aspirational rather than actual, especially given the seductive power and convenience afforded by the tools.

A related concern is the transparency—or lack thereof—associated with the algorithms themselves, which are now being used for a variety of legal applications, such as AI-based pattern comparison ( 55 ), and recidivism risk evaluation for decisions about sentencing and parole ( 56 ). We include in this collection an essay by Brandon Garrett and Cynthia Rudin ( 36 ), a legal scholar and a computer scientist, who make a compelling case for transparency and interpretability of AI-based deciding machines. These authors highlight the fact that there exists a class of algorithms for pattern identification, classification, and prediction that are advertised for their high accuracy performance but are frequently inscrutable, proprietary, or both, meaning that the end user of an algorithm is incapable of articulating how the machine came to a decision that has momentous impact.

Garrett and Rudin make the patent point that in applications for the cause of justice, this failure of algorithmic interpretability can violate rights of discovery, due process, and confrontation and may lead to disparate treatment in violation of rights to equal protection. The authors assert that a “defendant’s constitutional right to confront an adverse testimonial witness cannot be vindicated without the ability to interpret and understand the AI evidence.” Furthermore, “Fairness and discrimination are much easier to assess when models are interpretable.” Yes, of course, this is true from any reasoned scientific perspective. In a just society, shouldn’t an accused be able to confront and interpret the evidence brought to bear against them?

Garrett and Rudin stress that the solution to this problem a) requires recognition by the courts, which are in a position to intervene and b) involves the use of interpretable (“glass box” rather than “black box”) AI, where the underlying measurements and decision criteria are plain to see, inspiring trust in the outcome. This conclusion is powerful, but it prompts a worrisome realization that our widely accepted system for human pattern comparison also largely fails the transparency and interpretability tests. As noted above, the internal values of human-measured pattern similarity and the decision criteria used for classification are neither transparent nor quantified objectively. Moreover, for all the gains of modern neuroscience research, we have today only a limited understanding of how the “human” as an instrument and machine works. What the user of forensic pattern testimony receives is merely a subjective classification decision ** and that subjectivity is the principal reason why objective empirical validation is so important.

The Courts: Gates Installed but Opportunities Missed

The past 100 y have seen major judicial rulings and significant legislative actions designed to ensure that scientific evidence used in litigation is trustworthy. The 1993 Daubert ruling assigned trial judges the gatekeeping responsibility to evaluate whether the evidence meets the established standards—empirically tested, peer-reviewed, valid methods, and accurate results—for presentation to the jury. In addition to the points made by Koehler et al. (highlighted above) regarding the effectiveness of the judicial gates ( 37 ), we have included three perspectives in this collection [Albright ( 38 ), Rakoff and Liu ( 57 ), Scurich et al. ( 29 )] that converge on the use of scientific evidence by the courts. Woven together, these articles offer insights into a) the principles and rules for introducing scientific evidence; b) the reasons why our judicial system sometimes fails at the selective admission task; c) the consequences of this failure for efforts to understand scientific truth and administer justice; and d) how we might go about fixing the problem.

The Rules of Evidence and the Role of the Expert.

In his essay for this collection, Tom Albright offers a “scientist’s perspective” on the use of scientific evidence by the courts ( 38 ). This is largely a tutorial for the scientific community on a) the difficult demands placed on the use of scientific evidence in litigation, which are much different from those employed in scientific research, and b) the evidence rules that have been established to guide trial judges in their roles as gatekeepers for admission of evidence into court ( 6 , 58 , 59 ). Echoing a theme raised by Koehler et al. ( 37 ), Albright reviews historical variations in the emphasis placed on scientific expert witnesses vs. the scientific knowledge itself. (See also reference ( 60 )). The argument here is that scientific knowledge exists independently of any particular expert. In that spirit, the expert role is best served by good communication, in the form of plain language explanations of scientific knowledge for use by a lay audience. The science itself is freely accessible to anyone for use in the making of practical decisions, as it has been in other applied sciences, such as medicine and engineering. Albright makes the idealist argument that under the intense demands of courtroom litigation, an expert should channel the scientific consensus (“general acceptance”) of the day, for that is the most rational basis for decision given the exigence and resoluteness of the process. As any legal scholar will tell you, however, that idealism runs up hard against the practicalities of our judicial system, including constitutional protection of due process rights. But it is the conceptual standard with which we should start.

The only other native attribute of experts that is of significance is that they represent the “relevant scientific community” ( 6 ). Albright notes that the scholarly credentials of experts are valued by juries—often more so, it seems, than the science itself ( 61 ). The courts, however, have long struggled to identify the type of expertise that is most relevant to a specific question before the court ( 62 , 63 ) and to control a veritable circus of experts who have passed the admissibility test ( 64 , 65 ), often by lack of attention to the relevance standard. We address the latter problem below. Here, we briefly highlight the neglected question of what constitutes relevant science.

Albright argues that the definition of relevance has emerged as a particularly important matter in forensic testimony and deserves greater attention by the judiciary ( 38 ). Forensic practitioners , who possess expertise in the underlying principles and use of a forensic tool—they know how the tool works—have long held sway in trial courts. Scientific researchers , by contrast and by definition, possess expertise in experimental design and in the conduct of empirical studies of how well a tool or manipulation achieves the desired effect. As decisions from recent cases show ( 66 , 67 ), it is the researcher who is in the best position to answer what may be the most important question for the trier of fact ( 63 ): What is the probability that the forensic testimony is correct?

A View from the Bench: Courts Armed but not Always Reactive to Scientific Evidence.

Forensic evidence—messy, uncertain, highly subject to bias, and disheartening to pretty much everyone involved—routinely winds its way from crime labs to the courts, where it must first be evaluated, sometimes in a whirlwind of contestable arguments that take place in a Daubert admissibility hearing, for credibility by gatekeeping judges. To gain insight into this gatekeeping task from the perspective of the bench, we invited an essay from two prominent judges and influential legal scholars with a longstanding interest in forensic reform ( 57 ): Jed Rakoff, senior US District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and Goodwin Liu, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court (and CSTL alumnus). Rakoff and Liu begin by describing three major developments over the past 30 y that can broadly inform the courts about the validity of forensic evidence: 1) the advent of DNA profiling, which revealed a pervasive problem of wrongful conviction, much of it associated with failures of scientific evidence; 2) the US Supreme Court’s transformative Daubert ruling on the validity of scientific evidence ( 6 ); and 3) The detailed and high-profile condemnation of the safety and efficacy †† of forensic practice by an esteemed scientific organization, the National Academy of Sciences, in their 2009 report.

Rakoff and Liu offer a grim assessment, which is that despite these extraordinary developments, judges are inconsistent, at best, at critical evaluation of forensic evidence that reaches their courts. Some judges adopt a liberal approach to admissibility, rationalized by precedent, and founded on the flimsy premise that bad science will be rejected by juries when experts are subjected to cross-examination ( 68 ). Other judges appear to carefully consider the science, appreciating nuances of “relevant scientific community,” “widespread acceptance,” uncertainty of measurement, potential for bias, and manifest at least an implicit understanding of the fragility of our adversarial system for decision-making. In their perspective piece (highlighted in more detail below) Nick Scurich, David Faigman, and Tom Albright echo this concern about inconsistent application, noting that “most judges continue to admit [nonvalidated] forms of forensic evidence without serious scientific review” ( 29 ).

What is the Problem with the Courtroom Gates?

“Why is this?” Rakoff and Liu ask of the inconsistent adoption by courts of carefully considered standards for scientific evidence ( 57 ). The authors offer some explanations, the most credible of which is the simple fact that “most judges lack a scientific background—for example, no member of the current Supreme Court holds a degree in science—and do not feel comfortable independently assessing the reliability of scientific evidence.” Scurich et al. go further to say that “[t]his laxity appears to be a dual function of the law’s inertia and ignorance of science.” Inertia reflects the deadening but seemingly immutable role that precedent plays in judicial decisions. Ignorance is the real failure of duty: “ Daubert sought to impose on judges the responsibility for understanding the empirical grounds on which expert testimony relies.” Regrettably, by the estimation of Scurich et al., “courts have had considerable difficulty employing the Daubert factors or Rule 702’s standards” ( 29 ).

The practical consequences of failure to exercise discretion over the entry of scientific evidence to the courtroom are huge. Indeed, these are the very reasons that led to legislative and judicial action on evidence admissibility in the first place: Poor quality expert evidence presented to an inexpert trier may lead decisions to be based on opinions that are not sound or true to fact. The common rebuttal is that truth gets sorted out through the adversarial process ( 69 ). To illustrate the weakness of this argument and the fragility of courtroom decisions based on unchecked scientific evidence, Albright draws a distinction between generative and terminal adversarial systems for truth-seeking ( 38 ). Balanced adversaries in scientific research move forward by generating new experiments that can test the relative merits of their positions—a sort of science playoff round. With each new injection of knowledge, the generative process repeats, ad infinitum, triggered wherever adversarial conflict appears ( 70 ). In the courts, this approach is impossible because the adversarial process has a terminal outcome, which instead fosters a decision economy based on competitive marketing and triggers a disruptive cognitive phenomenon in which experts unconsciously adopt opinions about scientific truth that reflect allegiance to the parties that hired them ( 71 ). Some compelling solutions to this predictable problem have been proposed, as reviewed by Albright ( 38 ), but any step toward implementation faces a minefield of constitutional due process concerns, navigation of which will require greater consilience between the disciplines of science and law. In the meantime, it will still sometimes be true that “the ordinary means successful to aid the jury in getting at the facts, aid, instead of that, in confusing them” ( 64 ).

Improving the Operation of Admissibility Gates for Scientific Evidence.

As explanation for inconsistent application of evidence rules, Rakoff and Liu hypothesize that most judges “do not feel comfortable independently assessing the reliability of scientific evidence.” Indeed, there is a fair and rational case to be made that judges should not, in the first place, be put in the uncomfortable—and risky—position of assuming full responsibility for something that is beyond their ken. As Scurich et al. rightly note in their essay ( 29 ), “Courts need more help than Daubert’s five generic factors of sound science have so far provided.” Some help does exist. Following the Supreme Court’s 1993 Daubert ruling on scientific evidence ( 6 ), the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) began publishing the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence , which contains cogent summaries of scientific topics of relevance to the judiciary (e.g., forensics, toxicology, epidemiology). The third edition was published in 2011 jointly by the FJC and the NAS ( 72 ), under the auspices of CSTL, ‡‡ and has become a valued source of information to assist judges with decisions about admissibility. The new Rule 702-2022 may also provide some modest help ( 73 ), as it defines a quantitative (and legally typical) standard (“more likely than not”) for determining whether evidence meets the requirements of the rule. But the seriousness of the problem calls for broader strategies for assisting the judiciary on matters of science.

Suggestions made in the past to address the problem of partisan experts [noted above and summarized in the accompanying piece by Albright ( 38 )], which include a science court ( 74 ) and ad hoc science consensus panels of the sort commonly used to adjudicate research funding decisions ( 75 ), also offer potential tools for judges. A carefully moderated, open, and independent discussion of relevant science by these means, presented to the trial judge in an evidentiary hearing, could go a long way toward overcoming ignorance and ensuring more uniform application of courtroom standards for the quality of scientific evidence.

Another valuable strategy to improve the ability of judges to make sound decisions about admissibility of scientific evidence is proposed by Scurich et al. ( 29 ). These authors offer specific guidelines designed to assist judges in evaluating the utility and performance of forensic pattern comparison methods. The guidelines concept is drawn from a highly effective and broadly adopted approach to problems of causal inference in epidemiology. Known today as the “Bradford Hill Guidelines,” in recognition of the developer, Sir Austin Bradford Hill ( 76 ), their use is intended to assist physicians in answering key scientific questions about causality—as in, for example, determining whether an observed association between herbicide (e.g., Agent Orange) exposure and prostate cancer reflects a causal relationship.

In law, the Bradford Hill Guidelines for causal inference have nearly verbatim application to torts. While the important question in forensic cases is not directly one of causality—it is about scientific method performance—the same concept with some modification can be used to assist judges in answering key scientific questions that bear on performance. In their essay, Scurich et al. identify and detail four guidelines, which correspond to assessment of 1) plausibility, 2) quality of research design and methods used to assess validity, 3) corroboration, and 4) valid means to generalize from group effects to individual cases. While much of our focus in this Introduction , and the focus of the larger reformist literature on forensic practice, has been on the validity of a forensic tool ( 10 , 15 ), the Scurich et al. approach promotes a much broader view of the performance landscape as a guide for admissibility. The premise is that the results of the four assessment guidelines should not be treated categorically, like a checklist. Rather, they should figure into an estimate of the probability that the proffered testimony is sufficiently trustworthy to be weighed by the trier of fact, which is precisely the goal of an admissibility hearing.

Conclusions

Forensic practice was born with the noble purpose of seeking justice for people who have been wronged by others. But collection of evidence, measurement, and deductive reasoning alone do not make a science. The grand conceit of forensic pattern comparison disciplines is not simply that a human observer might determine whether two measurements are the same, but whether they are the same according to some reasoned quantitative standard and with known probability of error. To that end, the articles in this Special Feature collection convey, in no uncertain terms, that there is a much-needed revolution underway in forensic practice.

Empirical demonstration that conclusions are sometimes wrong and understanding of where the system breaks down are just the beginnings. To become a true science, a forensic pattern discipline must establish an empirical framework for asking the right questions about performance, design studies to assess method validity in precise quantitative terms, and appreciate the operating characteristics of the forensic instrument employed—the human brain—and its high susceptibility to bias under conditions of uncertainty.

The goal of a true forensic science is not just to decide, but to understand the legitimacy of human decisions in the messy and consequential world of evidence. Used with recognition of the potential for bias, and applied with transparency and respect for privacy, discoveries in the sciences of human information processing and advances in statistics and modeling can help achieve this goal. But getting forensic decisions right is only half the problem; the judiciary must also be educated and responsive to its gatekeeping mandate. Though all of this transpires within the arena of law, these are not matters that should be left exclusively to law enforcement and the courts. Progress made thus far toward a “scientific re-invention of forensic science” is fruit of a larger science-law consilience with many benefits for justice. Much of this consilience has emerged naturally from interdisciplinary pursuits, such as the NAS Committee on Science, Technology, and Law, and forensic initiatives at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The forensic revolution is not over, far from it. But the fact that it has begun at all and its successes thus far are testament to the critical importance of interdisciplinary work at the larger interface between scientific knowledge and legal policy.

Author contributions

T.D.A., D.B., A.-M.M., J.L.M., and D.S.T. wrote the paper.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

* Because forensic practice incorporates elements of the scientific method, such as data acquisition and deductive reasoning, the discipline is often called “forensic science.”

† To be sure, adequate proficiency testing can contribute to knowledge about accuracy even if the examiner is, in some sense, the "instrument." However, adequate and rigorous proficiency testing has not been a general feature of the pattern identification fields.

‡ Text excerpted from 2017 AAAS interview with Jed Rakoff, US District Judge for the Southern District of New York. It was intended as a caricature of experience claims, not actual testimony. See also ref. 77 .

§ The primary recommendation of the NAS report was to establish a new federal entity—a National Institute of Forensic Science—but congressional legislation to this end did not advance.

¶ As called for in the 2009 NAS report on forensics ( 10 ).

# This phrase has been a frequent component of legal testimony for decades. In 2016, the National Commission on Forensic Science approved a recommendation to the DOJ to adopt new guidelines that discourage use of the phrase, in view of its lack of substantive meaning. The Attorney General accepted the recommendation and issued a memorandum to effect relevant policies and guidelines.

‖ See the 2020 DOJ’s disturbing lack of insight into this matter ( 78 ).

** A subjective decision is an observer-dependent decision. An argument can be made that to the extent that a decision is made by uninterpretable AI, that decision is observer dependent and subjective.

†† By analogy to clinical trials in medicine, safety refers to the extent to which the tool yields no dangerous side effects, such as wrongful conviction. Efficacy, in turn refers to the extent to which the method is sensitive enough to identify the culprit.

‡‡ A fourth edition is in preparation, as of this writing.

Legal Treatises by Subject

Introduction & index, administrative law, admiralty & maritime law, agency, partnership, and limited liability corporations, american law & jurisprudence, antitrust law, civil procedure, commercial law, constitutional law, corporations and non-profit corporations, criminal law & procedure, e-discovery, education law, eminent domain & takings, employment law (see labor & employment law), entertainment law, environmental law, freedom of information, federal practice & procedure, immigration law, insurance law, intellectual property, including copyright, patents, and trademarks, international law, internet law, jurisdiction, labor & employment law, law & philosophy, legal ethics, legal research & writing, libel & slander, municipal law and zoning, native american law, negotiation, products liability, real property, securities law, taxation of financial products, trade secrets, trusts & estates, find more treatises, getting help, introduction.

Quick start: use the Guide Index to the left to find treatises on your topic.

Use treatises--books on legal topics--to begin your research. They will help you save time by providing explanation, analysis, context, and tips on the most relevant primary sources . 

Treatises range from single volume overviews for students to extensively detailed multi-volume sets for practitioners. They may come in the form of bound books updated with pocket parts or supplements, or in the form of loose-leafs with easily replaced pages. 

If you need help finding a relevant treatise, this guide will provide you with some of the most useful titles in each subject. We have noted if and where the treatise is available on online. Please keep in mind that this availability may change without notice.

Note: this guide now contains blurbs about and contents of the books where available. This text is taken from info provided by the publishers and does not imply any special endorsement. 

• HLS Library Guide to Secondary Sources. For more about using treatises, see the HLS Library Guide to Secondary Sources.

This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License .

You may reproduce any part of it for noncommercial purposes as long as credit is included and it is shared in the same manner. 

Topics Covered A-B

Hover over the A-B tab above to access these topics:

Admiralty & Maritime Law

Agency, Partnerships, & Limited Liability Corporations

American Law & Jurisprudence

Subject Guide

Admiralty and Maritime law

Agency, Partnerships, and Limited-Liability Corporations

American Law and Jurisprudence

Topics Covered C-E

Hover over the C-E tab above to access these topics:

Copyright (see also Intellectual Property)

Corporations (see also Non-Profit Corporations)

Criminal Law and Procedure

Eminent Domain (see Takings)

Corporations

Non-profit corporations

E-Commerce Law

Employment Law

• See Labor & Employment Law.
• Evidence in trials at common law by John T. McNaughton Call Number: KF8935 .W54x Publication Date: 1961- (kept current with supplements)

Topics Covered F-K

Hover over the F-K tab above to access these topics:

Federal Practice and Procedure

Indian Law (see Native American Law)

Intellectual Property (see also Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks)

Intellectual Property

Topics Covered L-M

Hover over the L-M tab above to access these topics:

Labor and Employment Law

Law and Philosophy

Legal Research

Libel and Slander

Municipal Law (see also Zoning and Planning)

Municipal Law

• Local Government Law by Michael E. Libonati, John Martinez Call Number: Available on Westlaw Publication Date: 1999- This set gives you a fundamental understanding of local government law and upcoming trends. It focuses on the entity's power to act and provides a fresh approach to solving local government problems. It thoroughly describes the regulatory powers of government and their application. The text also takes municipal law a step further by emphasizing the interrelationships among the various units of government: local and federal government, localities and the state, and between local government entities.

Zoning and Land Use

Topics Covered N-S

Hover over the N-S tab above to access these topics:

Non-Profit Corporations (see also Corporations)

Patents (see also Intellectual Property)

Topics covered in T-Z

Hover over the T-Z tab above to access these topics:

Trademarks (see also Intellectual Property)

Trusts and Estates

Zoning and Land Use Law (see also Municipal Law)

• Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Intentional Torts to Persons, tentative draft, No. 2 by American Law Institute Call Number: available on Lexis and Westlaw Publication Date: 2017 This draft includes Chapter 1, Definitions of Intentional Torts to Persons: Transferred Intent, of which Sections 101-105;110 were submitted for approval. These sections, with the exceptions noted below, were approved by the membership at the 2015 Annual Meeting, subject to discussion at the meeting and to editorial prerogative. This approved material may be cited as representing the Institute’s position until the official text is published. The following was subject to discussion only and is not considered approved material: Chapter 1 § 101(d), and Comments f, g; § 104(b), and Comment d; and § 105(c), and Comment j.
• Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Liability for Economic Harm, tentative draft by American Law Institute Call Number: KF1249.4 .R475; available on Lexis and Westlaw Publication Date: 2012- (kept current with supplements) This draft covers portions of Chapter 1 Unintentional Infliction of Economic Loss (§§ 6-8), and Chapter 2 Liability in Tort for Fraud (§§9-15). This draft was approved by the membership at the 2014 Annual Meeting, subject to the discussion at the Meeting and to editorial prerogative. This material may be cited as representing the Institute’s position until the official text is published.

This guide is just a start. Below are some additional ways to find treatises. 

• HLS Library guide to secondary sources. More information about using treatises is included in this guide.
• Ask Us Ask a librarian at HLS (or your place of employment or a local law library) to help you find a treatise.
• Browse the stacks Once you have an idea of the call number for your subject, you can browse shelves in that area for books that might be helpful. Keep in mind that not everything we have is on the shelf: items may be checked out by others, some treatises are now only available online, and some of our print collection is housed offsite at the Harvard Depository and is only findable through HOLLIS. Most treatises at the Depository are no longer updated.
• Explore subject headings To find more titles in the HOLLIS catalogue, click through to an individual title in this guide, then click the relevant subject heading links for more books on that subject.
• Search HOLLIS HOLLIS is the catalogue of materials owned by Harvard in both print and electronic formats. Use the HOLLIS tab to find books. Do a keyword or subject search, then use the facets to limit your search to the HLS Library. Note: Most treatises don't include the word treatise in their titles, so it tends not to be a useful search term.
• Search HOLLIS Classic Another way of accessing the Harvard Library collection, HOLLIS Classic is particularly good for subject searches or if you have a specific title in mind.
• Consult the Legal Information Buyer's Guide and Reference Manual by Ken Svengalis Call numbert: Reference Desk KF1 .L425; available on Lexis Svengalis's book reviews treatises in many subjects, noting their strengths, weaknesses, currency, and intended audiences.
• Consult Legal Looseleafs: Electronic and Print by Arlene Eis Call number: Reference Desk KF1 .L43; available online at link. Legal Looseleafs: Electronic and Print provides detailed information on over 2,600 looseleafs published by over 100 publishers.

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• Last Updated: Sep 12, 2023 10:46 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/legaltreatises

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• Introduction
• Study Aids & CALI Lessons

Legal Encyclopedias

Law reviews, american law reports.

• Primary Sources
• Current Awareness
• Additional Guides
• Georgia Legal Encyclopedias
• National Legal Encyclopedias

Legal Encyclopedias are an excellent way to start your research into Georgia Evidence Law, since they focus on providing an accessible overview fo the law. Unlike AmJur, Georgia Jurisprudence  (Westlaw) doesn't have a chapter dedicated to Evidence; instead material on this topic is spread throughout the legal encyclopedia, usually in the chapters and sections associated with the relevant substantive law. This makes the Evidence index entry a valuable starting point for research with this resource. 

National Legal Encyclopedias focus on providing an accessible overview of the law. This means that they can often be a good way to start your research into Federal Evidence Law, however, they also include coverage of all 50 states, so you need to take care in referencing these sources that the material is applicable to your jurisdiction of interest. 

• American Jurisprudence has a fairly extensive chapter dedicated to Evidence , as well as a shorter chapter that specifically covers E xpert & Opinion Evidence. The issue also sometimes comes up in discussions of other topics, so checking the index is never a bad idea. Although AmJur is published by Westlaw's parent company, you can also find it on Lexis . 
• Corpus Juris Secundum (CJS) (Westlaw) also has a chapter on Evidence . As usual, the treatment here is a bit more in-depth, but that can also make it less accessible earlier in your research. It's also a good idea to check the index to find any relevant discussions included in other chapters and entries. 
• Georgia Treatises
• Federal Treatises

For initial recommendations, see Getting Started . The list below is a more complete list of the library's treatises on this area of law. In addition, you can often find coverage of evidence-related issues in litigation-oriented practice treatises covering other substantive topics. 

The scholarly commentary found in law review articles makes them an essential source for scholarly or academic legal projects. They can also be of use in more practically-oriented research, especially if you can find an article that closely matches your issue. You can use these links to search HeinOnline and Westlaw for relevant law review articles. 

• Westlaw- Law Reviews & Journals

If you are researching Georgia's Evidence Law, this article could be helpful:

• Paul S. Milich, Georgia's New Evidence Code - An Overview, 28 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 379 (2012). GSU Law Professor Emeritus Paul Milich provides the definitive overview of the new rules of evidence that Georgia adopted in 2011. Professor Milich was the reporter for the committee that proposed the rules, so he's especially well-positioned to do so. As with any periodical, when using this article, it's important to be especially thorough in updating the law.

American Law Reports (ALR) are an excellent resource for researching narrow issues that arise under the law of evidence, especially at the federal level. In addition, you can find many useful ALR annotations discussing the "Construction and Application" of various Federal Rules of Evidence. You can search the ALR database or its index in Westlaw with the following links:

This list of evidence-related ALRs should give you a sense of what's out there, but it's by no means complete:

• Admissibility of Testimony Concerning Extrajudicial Statements Made to, or in Presence of, Witness Through Interpreter—State Cases, 97 A.L.R.6th 567
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• Last Updated: Feb 26, 2024 2:29 PM
• URL: https://libguides.law.gsu.edu/evidence

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• Theory & Methods

Evidence Library

State debt collection litigation laws.

Debt collection lawsuits have increased dramatically over the past few decades, now accounting for an estimated one in four of all civil cases. These lawsuits—which can include suits to recover student loan debt, medical debt, car loan debt, credit card debt, and more—are overwhelmingly resolved in favor of the debt collector. Debt and debt collection judgments can have severe and far-reaching consequences, including wage garnishment, bank account seizure, and inability to secure housing, employment, or medical care.

Buprenorphine Prescribing Requirements and Limitations

Drug decriminalization laws.

More than one million people are arrested annually for drug possession across the United States. People charged with and convicted of criminal drug offenses can face devastating collateral consequences, including eviction, unemployment, loss of the right to vote, and deportation. Research shows that criminalization of drug possession contributes to the marginalization of people with substance use disorders, results in stark racial disparities, and costs billions of dollars.

The Legal Path to a Whole of Government Opioids Response

This project brings together researchers from the Center for Public Health Law Research and the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, to identify a series of 84 actionable steps for government at all levels to improve and align drug policy in the United States.

The increase in serious opioid use disorder (OUD) and overdose deaths in the United States requires a response that coordinates multiple levels of government to mobilize their resources and expertise in an aligned and efficient fashion. 

Legal and Health Risks of Abortion Criminalization: State Policy Responses in the Immediate Aftermath of Dobbs

This article in the  Journal of Law and Health  explores the changes in abortion laws including abortion bans and related penalties, interstate shield laws, and data privacy protections, from June 1, 2022 through January 1, 2023. 

12 Months Post-Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization: Tracking State-Level Trends in Criminalization, Legal Protections, and Litigation Battles Over Abortion

State bills relating to vaccines in schools and provider scopes of practice.

This longitudinal dataset captures legislation addressing school entry vaccination requirements, non-medical exemptions to school vaccination requirements, the reallocation of authority to determine vaccination requirements for schools, and expansions to provider scope of practice to administer vaccines between January 1, 2023, and May 22, 2023, in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia.

Prior Authorization Policies for Pediatric ADHD Medication Prescriptions – Selected Managed Care Plans

This dataset examines features of prior authorization policies in the Medicaid managed care plans of five states (Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, and South Carolina) selected to be case studies for ADHD medication prior authorization in managed care. Features examined relate to pediatric ADHD medication treatment, including applicable ages, medication types, and criteria for approval in effect as of April 1, 2023.

ASTHO’s Public Health Legal Mapping Center

Public Health and law are interwoven, shaping how communities interact and people experience the world around them. Legal mapping is the scientific process of analyzing state laws concerning a particular legal topic at either a particular point in time (cross-sectional) or its change over a period of time (longitudinal). This page features ASTHO’s legal mapping work to plot the legal landscape for public health priorities, beginning with policies intended to prevent overdose.

Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Laws

Unintentional drug overdose is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Some states have enacted "Good Samaritan" laws that create immunities or other legal protections for people who call for help in the event of an overdose to encourage and protect bystanders who may otherwise not be willing to call for fear of being arrested for drug-related crimes. The protection afforded by these laws varies from state to state.

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Law of Evidence Research Topics: Exploring Key Areas and Trends

Exploring the intriguing world of law of evidence research topics.

As legal researcher, into law evidence exhilarating thought-provoking. Study evidence law crucial legal system, governs admissibility evidence court. Field rich fascinating topics uncover legal system contribute jurisprudence.

When exploration law evidence topics, essential consider aspects evidence law provide opportunities analysis inquiry. Burdens proof rules admissibility, numerous areas explore.

Research Topics in the Law of Evidence

These just examples myriad topics captivate legal interested law evidence. Delving areas, researchers gain insights complexities evidence law contribute ongoing within legal community.

Case Studies and Statistical Analysis

One way approach law evidence through examination notable Case Studies and Statistical Analysis. By dissecting landmark legal cases and conducting quantitative research, researchers can uncover patterns and trends that shed light on the application of evidentiary standards in practice.

For instance, a study analyzing the admissibility of eyewitness testimony in criminal cases could yield valuable insights into the reliability of such evidence. Examining range cases conducting analysis, researchers offer contributions ongoing surrounding eyewitness testimony impact legal outcomes.

Personal Reflections on the Legal Research Process

As deeply about law complexities, find world evidence law intellectually endeavor. Opportunity engage intricate principles contribute legal scholarship immensely rewarding.

Through my own research journey, I have come to appreciate the significance of evidence law in shaping the outcomes of legal proceedings. Nuances evidentiary challenges evaluating forms evidence sparked curiosity fueled desire delve captivating field.

Ultimately, the law of evidence offers a rich tapestry of research topics that can captivate legal scholars and contribute to the ongoing evolution of the legal system. By embracing the complexities of evidence law and engaging with thought-provoking research topics, legal researchers can make meaningful contributions to the advancement of jurisprudence.

Top 10 Legal Questions About Law of Evidence Research Topics

Law of evidence research topics contract.

This contract entered parties accordance laws regulations law evidence research topics.

Terms Conditions

1. Party A and Party B agree to abide by all applicable laws and regulations related to the law of evidence research topics.

2. Party A and Party B shall conduct their research in accordance with the rules of evidence as outlined in the relevant statutes and case law.

3. Any disputes arising from the research topics shall be resolved through arbitration in accordance with the rules of evidence.

4. Party A Party B agree maintain confidentiality evidence collected research shall disclose third party consent.

5. This contract is governed by the laws of [Jurisdiction] and any disputes shall be resolved in the courts of [Jurisdiction].

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50 Legal Research Topics For The Month Of March 2023!

In this article, Team YLCC brings you the top 50 legal research topics for law students in March 2023. Happy researching!

• Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2023: A Critical Analysis.
• The National Security Act, 1980: Amritpal Singh Case.
• Rules and Regulations for foreign law firms and Lawyers in India: A Study.
• India’s ban on blood transfer by gay and transgender people: An Analysis.
• Digital India Bill: Need of the Hour?
• The impact of the Right to Information Act on government transparency.
• Role of International Seabed Authority (ISA) in Deep Sea Mining.
• The impact of the Motor Vehicles Act on road safety in India: A Field Study.
• Anti-spyware Declaration: Why is it needed?
• The legal and ethical implications of human organ transplantation in India.
• Exploitation of Surrogacy Laws in India.
• The legal and ethical implications of assisted suicide in India.
• Politicians claiming ‘higher immunity’ for misusing CBI and ED: A Study.
• The legal implications of online harassment in India.
• The legal status of women’s inheritance rights in India.
• The impact of the Forest Rights Act on forest dwellers’ rights in India.
• Australia’s step towards climate change: A Study.
• The impact of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition.
• Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act on land acquisition in India.
• The impact of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act on child sexual abuse in India.
• Legal opinion on telecom regulatory authority of India repealing regulations, 2023. 
• How Rajasthan’s Advocate Protection Bill, 2023 will stop offences against Advocates?
• Role of NCPCR in the empowering of girl children. 
• How well Digital India bill will replace the Information Technology Act, 2000: A Study.
• The need for amendment in the AMASR Act, 1958. 
• Analysis of Manish Sisodia’s Liquor policy case.
• Legal opinion on Supreme Court’s refusal to hear PIL on menstrual leave. 
• Implications of the MP government’s new liquor policy. 
• Analysis of Spain’s menstrual paid leave law: A Study.
• Salient Features of Uttar Pradesh’s anti-cheating law: An Analysis.
• The legal and ethical implications of genetic testing in India.
• The legal and ethical implications of assisted reproduction in India.
• The legal status of net neutrality in India: A Study.
• Inheritance and property rights of indigenous women in tribal communities.
• Marriage Equality in Singapore: An analysis.
• Regulation of Domain Name Registrars.
• Car theft and auto insurance: How do insurance companies handle claims for stolen vehicles, and what legal recourse do victims have?
• The effectiveness of shareholder activism as a tool for corporate governance.
• Autonomous vehicle regulations: How are self-driving cars regulated, and what legal issues arise from their use on public roads?
• Legal and ethical considerations in organ transplantation in India: A critical review.
• Role of Expert Witnesses in Construction Disputes in India.
• Legal issues surrounding involuntary psychiatric treatment in India.
• Role of Competition Law in promoting innovation in the Indian tech industry.
• Role of data protection and privacy laws in regulating the use of data by dominant players in the Indian tech industry.
• Analysis of the Shraddha Walkar Case: Perspectives and Arguments.
• Concerns and Criticisms of the Electoral Bond Scheme: Analysing the Opinion of the RBI.
• Admissibility of Unregistered Agreements as Evidence in a Suit for Specific Performance: Analysing R Hemalatha v. Kashthuri (2023).
• Guidelines for Bancassurance Operations: Evidence-based Policy Formulation from the US Financial Market.
• Key Clauses of Purchase and Sales Agreement.
• Privacy and Security Compliance Challenges Faced by US Organizations: A Comprehensive Analysis.

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Law Dissertation Topics

Published by Owen Ingram at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On October 5, 2023

Introduction

Law dissertations can be demanding because of the need to find relevant regulations, cases, and data to address the research problem successfully. It is of utmost importance to critically examine facts before framing the  research questions .

Selection of the most appropriate legal terms and legal authorities, whether online or in print, can be challenging especially if you have not tackled a law dissertation project before.

To help you select an intriguing law  dissertation  topic,  our expert writers have suggested some issues in various areas of law, including trust law, EU law, family law, employment and equality law, public law, tort law, intellectual property rights, commercial law, evidence, and criminal law, and human rights and immigration law.

These topics have been developed by PhD-qualified writers of our team , so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

Review step by step guide on how to write your own dissertation  here.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the topic,  research question , aim and objectives ,  literature review  along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  dissertation examples to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

Review the full list of dissertation topics for 2022 here.

2022 Law Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: the role of international criminal laws in reducing global genocide.

Research Aim: This study aims to find the role of international criminal laws in reducing global genocide. It will be an exploratory study identifying the explicit and implicit effects of international criminal laws on the worldwide genocide. It will analyse different incidents of international genocide and find out how international criminal laws played a positive role to reduce these incidents. Lastly, it will recommend possible changes in the international criminal laws to effectively mitigate global genocide. And it will be done by comparing criminal laws of world-leading powers to reduce genocide.

Topic 2: Impact of Anti-Racism Employment Laws on Organisational Culture- A Comparative Study on the Anti-Racism Employment Laws in the US and Canada

Research Aim: This research aims to find the impact of anti-racism employment laws on the organisational culture in the US and Canada in a comparative analysis. It will identify the change in employees’ behaviour after implementing anti-racism laws. Moreover, it will find whether employees gleefully welcomed these laws or showed resistance. And how do these laws affect the organisations’ performance that strictly implemented them?

Topic 3: Globalization, international business transactions, and commercial law- A perspective from literature.

Research Aim: Students and practitioners can find the law of international business transactions as a subfield within a broader field of international commercial law to be somewhat amorphous.

This study will explain the impact of globalization on international business transactions and commercial law by establishing some necessary links between the study of transnational business law and related fields of international studies. This study also aims to address theories about foreign business regulation, such as the idea that it is free of power politics. For the collection of data existing literature will be studied. And the methodology of this research will rely on existing previous literature.

Topic 4: Investigating the impact of competition law on the businesses in the UK- Post Brexit

Research Aim: This study aims to investigate the impact of competition laws on businesses in the Post-Brexit UK. The proposed study will not only analyze the performance of the businesses with the current competition laws. But also analyze the impact of possible changes in competition laws on the businesses in the post-Brexit UK. And it will also incorporate the possible difference of changes in competition laws in deal, no-deal, hard deal, and soft deal scenarios. This way of individually analyzing the difference of competition laws due to the status of the UK’s deal with the EU will give better insights into how businesses will be affected by these laws in the post-Brexit UK.

Topic 5: A comparison between Islamic and contemporary laws against rape. Which law is the most effective in preventing this horrific crime?

Research Aim: Since several years, marital and non-marital relations in Muslim majority countries have been a source of controversy. Under Islamic law, it is strictly forbidden for a Muslim, or even non-Muslim to engage in illicit sexual relations with the opposite gender under any situation. The current study will help us understand the concepts presented in Islamic laws about rape cases. In this context, a comparative analysis of Islamic and contemporary law will be explained. It will also identify efficient and effective strategies to prevent this horrific crime.

Law Dissertation Topics 2021

Topic 1: the legal implications of the covid-19 pandemic on canadian immigration and the way forward..

Research Aim: This study will focus on how the Canadian government benefits from resources accrued from immigration, the impact of COVID-19 on Canadian Immigration, the current legislation on immigration, the effects of COVID-19 on the immigration law, the possible amendments that could help cushion the impact and the way forward.

Topic 2: Effect of COVID-19 on the United States Immigration policies; an assessment of International Legal agreements governing pandemic disease control and the way forward.

Research Aim: This research will focus on the pandemic’s effect on immigration policies in the United States. It also suggests the required steps based on the laws that regulate government acts during an outbreak of a pandemic.

Topic 3: Creating legal policies in preparedness for the global pandemic; lessons from COVID-19 on Canadian immigration policies.

Research Aim: This research will focus on how the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world and how most countries seemed unprepared. Historical background of the flu pandemic can also be made to assess how the world overcame the pandemic. And the need for the Canadian government or any other country you wish to choose can prepare for a global pandemic by creating legal policies that could help prepare ahead for such a period, such as policies on scientific research and funding.

Topic 4: The need for uniformity of competition law and policy in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries; An approach to the European Union standard.

Research Aim: This research will focus on the Gulf Cooperation Countries and their current legislation on competition law and its implications. Countries under the European Union’s competition law, the legal implications, and the need to consider such a part.

Topic 5: The need for competition law and policy enforcement; An analysis of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries.

Research Aim: This research focuses on the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries’ competition laws and their enforceability. It analyses the benefits of enforcing the competition law and looks at the European Union uniformed laws and its benefits. It looks into the various countries, how the competition law currently works, and how it can affect each country’s economy in a better way or adequately enforced.

Topic 6: Provisions of the law on rape, the need to expand its coverage on the misuse of its provisions, and false accusations.

Research Aim: This research will focus on the law’s present provisions on rape and rape victims and the recent false accusations.

Topic 7: Summary dismissal of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, the legal implications under the labour law, and the way forward. The case study of Nigeria

Research Aim: This research will focus on the statistics of people who were summarily dismissed during the COVID-19 pandemic based on natural occurrences, provisions of the law against summary dismissal, and its enforcement, and how this can be cushioned against future events. The need to expand the labour law to cover similar situations for the protection of workers.

Topic 8: A legal assessment of the settlement of international disputes through the peaceful process and its effectiveness

Research Aim: This research focuses on the mode of dispute settlement in the international community, assessment of international laws and treaties on peaceful settlement of conflicts among countries of member states, the methods of dispute settlements, its strengths and weaknesses, and the need to improve the current mechanisms of peaceful settlement in the international community.

Topic 9: The protection of minority shareholders and the majority shareholders' power in Companies, a critical analysis of the Nigerian Companies and Allied Matters Act provisions.

Research Aim: This research will focus on the law’s provisions on protecting minority shareholders in companies and the majority shareholders’ power. How effective are these provisions in protecting the minorities against the management of the majority shareholders and the way forward

COVID-19 Law Research Topics

Topic 1: law during the time of the coronavirus crisis.

Research Aim:  This study will analyse the role of law and order during COVID-19.

Topic 2: Legal policies and issues during COVID-19

Research Aim: This study will focus on the legal policies issued during the COVID-19 across the world. Challenges faced by the public and government during the lockdown will also be addressed.

Topic 3: The role of cops during COVID-19

Research Question: This study will highlight the role of cops in combatting COVID-19 and ensuring public health safety. It’ll also focus on the risk and challenges they come across and how to overcome those challenges.

Topic 4: Justice during COVID-19

Research Aim: The entire world has been paused during the lockdown situation. This study will investigate the mode of trials, court sessions, and justice during the coronavirus pandemic.

Topic 5: Health guidelines and social distancing

Research Aim: This study will reveal the WHO’s health and safety guidelines.

Topic 6: Guidelines for transport, educational institutions, business sectors, and hospitals during the Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will focus on reviewing the guidelines issued by the government for various public gathering places such as transport, educational institutions, business sectors, and hospitals during the Coronavirus pandemics.

Topic 1: World Bank developmental projects and greater accountability

Research Aim: Examine communities impacted by development operations under the World Bank Development project schemes using the project law model to understand the lack of participation and successful influence of these communities to improve accountability and good governance.

Topic 2: The right to bear arms: Rethinking the second amendment

Research Aim: Gun control and the right to bear arms has been an ever-evolving web discourse in the United States. The research aims at analysing how gun control laws have changed in the USA since specifically focusing on the 2nd Amendment and its original framework.

Topic 3: Rethinking the international legal framework protecting journalists in war and conflict zones.

Research Question: Is the current legal framework still appropriate for protecting journalists in today’s conflict zones? Research Aim: The primary body of law that is set out to protect journalists includes the Geneva Conventions and their additional Protocols. However, since the time they have been drafted and decades after, there have been conspicuous changes to the way warfare is conducted. It is imperative to examine this body of law in order to improve it as journalists have now become prime targets in war zones and conflict areas because of their profession.

Topic 4: A critical analysis of employment law of disabled individuals in the UK and what new policies can be integrated to increase its efficiency.

Research Aim: Employment or labour law has always been under the limelight. Many critiques and researchers have proposed different amendments to the existing law pertaining to labour and employee. The main aim of the research is to critically analyse the employment law of disabled individuals in the UK along with effective recommendations that need to be made in order to make the existing law more efficient and effective.

Topic 5: A critical evaluation of racial discrimination laws in developed countries and how it impacts the workplace environment

Research Aim: Racial discrimination has always been a controversial issue in almost every part of the World. However, many developed countries (companies) face severe racial discrimination issues that directly impact their name and brand value. Therefore, this research provides a critical evaluation of the racial discrimination laws, particularly in developed countries. Moreover, the research will be focusing on how racial discrimination laws are impacting the workplace environment.

Topic 6: A comparative analysis of legislation, policy, and guidelines of domestic abuse between UK and USA.

Research Aim: Domestic laws basically deal with and provide criminal rules for punishing individuals who have physically or emotionally harmed their own family members. It has been found out that many domestic cases of abuse are not reported to the concerned authority. Due to this reason, the main focus of the research is to conduct a comparative analysis of legislation, policy, and guidelines of domestic abuse between the UK and the USA and how effective both the countries have been to minimise domestic abuse.

Topic 7: Analyzing the negative impact of technology in protecting the intellectual property rights of corporations.

Research Aim: Intellectual property has gained significant importance after the emergence of counterfeit products coming from different parts of the world. It has been found out that many factors have motivated the sale of counterfeit products. Therefore, this research aims at analysing the negative impact of technology in protecting the intellectual property rights of products and corporations.

Topic 8: A critical assessment of the terrorism act of 2010 and its impact on Muslims living around the globe.

Research Aim: Since the incident of 9/11, the entire world has been under the pressure of terrorism activities, especially Muslims living around the world. Therefore, this research intends to critically assess the terrorism act of 2010 and its impact on Muslims living around the globe.

Trust Law Dissertation Topics

The trust law requires the settler to meet the three certainties, including the object, intention, and subject matter. As posted to a moral obligation or mere gift, confidence of choice can be best described as clarity of purpose. Some interesting dissertation topics in the field of trust law  are listed below:

• To investigate the attitude of the courts to trusts supporting political agendas.
• To identify and discuss principles on which half-secret and full secret trusts are enforced? Does a literature review highlight circumstances where it is essential to consider whether such beliefs are constructive and express?
• The role and impact of trust law as asset portioning and fiduciary governance
• From law to faith: Letting go of secret trusts
• Critical analysis of the statement “Traditionally, equity and the law of trusts have been concerned with providing justice to balance out the rigour of the common law” regarding modern equity development/operation.
• Should the assumption of resulting trusts and progression be abolished in this modern age? A critical review of the literature
• A critical examination of the courts’ concern of financial reward in the context of “trustee powers of investment”
• Does the doctrine of cypress do justice to the intentions of the testator?
• The impact of the decision of Harrison v Gibson on the law of the clarity of intention?
• The approval of trustees in the Zimbabwean law of trusts

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European Law Dissertation Topics

European law has recently attracted wide attention from the academic world, thanks to the growing influence of European Law on administrative law in EU members. It should be noted that every aspect of life in European states is significantly affected by European law, and therefore this area of research has gained tremendous popularity. Some exciting and specific research areas are given below:

• A critical review of the European anti-discrimination Law
• To investigate the economics and history of European Law.
• An investigation of the European human rights law
• Investigating the impact of “Freedom of Speech” on the German economy
• Investigating the impact of immigration laws on the German economy
• How the French parliamentary sovereignty has been affected by the European Union
• Uniform interpretation of European patent law with a unique view on the creation of a standard patent court
• The impact of European consensus in the jurisprudence of the European court of human rights
• The impact of the European convention on human rights on the international human rights law
• A critical analysis of the tensions between European trade and social policy
• To investigate the European Union’s enforcement actions and policies against member countries.
• European Laws amidst the Brexit process

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Family Law Dissertation Topics

A wide range of topics are covered under the field of family law and the law of children. Essentially, this area of law takes into consideration the registration of marriages, statutory rights concerning marriage, the effects of a decree, void and voidable marriages, the impact of the Human Rights Act, the legal stature of unmarried and married individuals, and the case for reform of UK family law . Other research areas include enforcing financial responsibilities in the Magistrates court, enforcing the arrears of maintenance payments, the award of maintenance, enforcing financial obligations to children or a child, financial orders for children, and the Child Support Act. An extremely intriguing area of law that has gained tremendous popularity in the modern era, some specific  dissertation topics  in this area of law studies are listed below:

• Investigating therapeutic and theoretical approaches to deal with spouse abuse in light of the UK government’s latest research on domestic violence
• Unmarried fathers’ access to parental responsibility – Does the current law enforce rights and responsibilities towards children?
• To study the criminal justice process involving a child witness.
• The children’s right to participation – Rhetoric or Reality? – A critical review of literature from the past two decades
• To study the position of unmarried fathers in the UK.
• Does the UK Family law need a major reform?
• A critical review of the rights of married women in real estate
• Child welfare and the role of local authorities
• To study the legal and social foundations of parenting, civil partnership, and marriage.
• To examine whether the Child Support Act has positively influenced child maintenance?

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Employment Law Dissertation Topics

Employment and equality law governs the relationship between the government, trade unions, employers, and employees.  Employment and equality law in the UK is a body of law that prevents bias and negative attitudes towards someone based on their ethnicity or race rather than work skills and experience. Some interesting dissertation topics  in this area of law are below:

• A critical investigation of the right to fair labor practices in the United Kingdom
• To determine the job’s inherent requirements as a defence to unfair discrimination or a claim – A comparison between the United Kingdom and Canada.
• The role of the South African Labour Relations Act in providing unhappy staff sufficient protection against unfair dismissals and discrimination at the workplace
• To investigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on employees’ lives with a focus on unfair dismissal and discrimination.
• To assess ethnic discrimination in the European Union: Derogations from the ban on discrimination – Sexual harassment – Equal pay for equal value work.
• To study the international employment contract – Regulation, perception, and reality.
• To identify and discuss challenges associated with equality at work.
• A study of the legal aspects of the relationship between employer and employee
• How influential is the role of trade unions in English employment law?
• A critical review of discrimination policies in the UK

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Commercial Law Dissertation Topics

Commercial law, also known as business law, is the whole body of substantive jurisprudence applicable to the conduct, relations, and rights of sales, trade, merchandising, and businesses and persons associated with commerce. Important issues of law covered by commercial law include real estate, secured transactions, credit transactions, bankruptcy, banking, and contracts. An intriguing area of law within the UK, specific topics for your law dissertation are listed below:

• The impact of legislation for the regulation of investments services with EU economic area on the EU financial services market
• Handling regulatory involvement incorporates organisational structure and strategy.
• A study of convergence and complementarities concerning international corporate governance
• How drafting and diffusion of uniform norms can help to harmonise the law of international commercial arbitration?
• Convergence and adaption in corporate governance to transnational standards in India
• A critical review of the international commercial arbitration system
• Analysing the international commercial law on risk transfer
• The role of the tripartite financial system in the UK on economic development
• A comparative analysis of European contract law, international commercial contracts law, and English commercial contracts law
• Is the European contracts law meeting the needs of the commercial community?
• A critical review of anti-corruption legislation in the UK
• The problems of director accountability in the UK and the impact of soft and hard law on corporate governance

Criminal and Evidence Law Dissertation Topics

Criminal law  can be defined as a system of law dealing with the punishment of criminals. Criminal evidence, on the other hand, concerns evidence/testimony presented in relation to criminal charges. Evidence can be presented in various forms in order to prove and establish crimes. A wide array of topics can be covered in this subject area. To help you narrow down your research focus, some  interesting topics  are suggested below:

• The politics of criminal law reform with a focus on lower-court decision making
• To understand and establish the historical relationship between human rights and Islamic criminal law
• Investigating the rights of victims in internal criminal courts
• The efficacy of the law of rape in order to prevent misuse by bogus victims and to protect rightful victims
• To assess the criminal law’s approach to Omissions
• To investigate the issues associated with the identification of the distribution, extent, and nature of the crime
• A critical review of the Bad Samaritan laws and the law of omissions liability
• How international criminal law has been significant influenced by the “war on terrors”?
• The efficacy of modern approaches to the definition of intention in International criminal law
• The efficacy of the law of corporate manslaughter

Company Law Dissertation Topics

Company law, also known as the  law of business associations , is the body of law that deals with business organisations and their formation, registration, incorporation, governance, dissolution, and administration. Some suggestions for company law dissertation topics are listed below:

• Developing equity markets in growing economies and the importance of corporate law
• A critical review of English company law and its effects on member workers and creditors
• To investigate the essential aspects of corporate law.
• To study business responsibilities for human rights.
• Identifying disparities in corporate governance – Theories and Realities
• The external relations of company groups in Zambian Corporate law
• To study corporate governance practices concerning the minority stakeholders.
• Establishing and evaluating arguments for and against “stakeholder theory.”
• The importance of non-executive directors in the British corporate legal system
• Investigating the regulation of the UK public company

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Intellectual Property and Tort Law Dissertation topics

All forms of legal injury are dealt with under the subject area of tort law. Essentially, tort law helps to establish the circumstances whereby a person may be held responsible for another person’s injury caused by either accident on intentional acts. On the other hand, intellectual property covers areas of law such as copyright, patents, and trademark. Trademark dissertation topics trademarks directive, trademarks act, infringement of trademarks such as revocation, invalidity, and the use of similar marks. Some interesting dissertation ideas and topics  of tort law and intellectual property are suggested below to help your law studies.

• The efficacy of intellectual property rights in the UK under influence of European Law
• The efficacy of UK copyright law concerning the needs of rights users and holders
• The impact of intellectual property right on economic development
• To investigate the right of confidence in the UK
• Does the trademark law ensure sufficient protection in England?
• The impact of European Law on intellectual property rights in the UK
• The end of the road for loss of a chance?
• To assess the success ratio of psychiatric injury claims in the UK
• Should a no-fault system be implemented into UK law or should the law of negligence apply to personal injury claims?
• A critical review of economic loss in 21 st century tort law

Human Rights and Immigration Law

The primary objective of human rights and immigration law is to ensure and protect human rights at domestic, regional, and international levels. With the world becoming a global village, human rights and immigration laws have attracted significant attention from academicians and policymakers. Some interesting law dissertation topics in this subject area are suggested below:

• To assess the efficacy of the common European Asylum system in terms of immigration detention.
• A historical analysis of Britain’s immigration and asylum policies
• A critical analysis of immigration policy in Britain since 1990
• A critical analysis of the right of the police and the public right to protest under PACE 1984
• The right of prisoners to vote under the European law of human rights
• Arguments for and against the death penalty in English Law with a focus on human rights treatise
• A critical analysis of the right to private life and family for failed asylum seekers
• The impact of UK immigration policies on the current education industry
• How beneficial the points system has really been in regards to create a cap in the British immigration system
• To study the impact of privatisation on immigration detention and related functions in the UK.

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Pandemic Law Dissertation Topics

Coronavirus, also known as the Covid-19, has become the most trending topic in the world since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that started in China. Here are some interesting Corona Virus or Covid 19 Pandemic Law topics that you can consider for your law dissertation.

• Co-parenting in the coronavirus pandemic: A family law scholar’s advice
• How San Diego law enforcement operated amid Coronavirus pandemic
• Pandemic preparedness in the workplace and the British with disabilities act
• Why In a pandemic, rumors of martial Law fly despite reassurances
• Investigating About the ADA, the Rehabilitation Act, and COVID-19
• Resources to support workers in the UK during the Coronavirus pandemic
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic:
• A legal perspective
• Navigating the Coronavirus Pandemic
• Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) and employment laws in the UK going forward
• Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) and employment laws in the US going forward
• Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) and employment laws in Australia going forward

More Law Dissertation Topics

• A critical analysis of the employment law of disabled individuals in the UK and what new policies can be integrated to increase its efficiency
• A critical evaluation of racial discrimination laws in developed countries and how it impacts the workplace environment
• A comparative analysis of domestic abuse with the legislation, policy, and domestic abuse guidelines between the UK and USA.
• Analysing the negative impact of technology in protecting the intellectual property rights of corporations.
• A critical assessment of the terrorism act of 2010 and its impact on Muslims living around the Globe.

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As a law dissertation student looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment with existing law dissertation theories – i.e., to add value and interest in the topic of your research.

The field of law dissertation is vast and interrelated to many other academic disciplines like civil engineering ,  construction ,  project management , engineering management , healthcare , mental health , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , project management , and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic based on your fundamental research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your case wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, and there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best law dissertation topics that fulfill your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalising your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and be practically implemented. Please look at some of our sample law dissertation topics to get an idea for your dissertation.

How to Structure your Law Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Declaration
• Abstract: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction : This chapter includes project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
• Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analysing published and unpublished literature available on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths while identifying any research gaps. Break down the topic, and binding terms can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
• Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods and data analysis strategy .
• Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analysed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter, and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section is establishing the link between the products and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to implications of the findings and directions for future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References : Make sure to complete this by your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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Effects of Income on Infant Health: Evidence from the Expanded Child Tax Credit and Pandemic Stimulus Checks

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government issued stimulus checks and expanded the child tax credit. These pandemic payments varied by marital status and the number of children in the household and were substantial with some families receiving several thousand dollars. We exploit this plausibly exogenous variation in income to obtain estimates of the effect income on infant health. We measure the total amount of pandemic payments received during pregnancy, or the year before birth, and examine how this additional income affects birthweight, the incidence of low birth weight, gestational age and fetal growth. Data are from birth certificates and analyses are conducted separately by maternal marital status and education (less than high school or high school) to isolate only the variation in pandemic payments due to differences in the number of children (parity). Estimates indicate that these pandemic cash payments had no statistically significant, or clinically or economically meaningful effects on infant health. Overall, the findings suggest that income transfers during pregnancy will have little effect on socioeconomic disparities in infant health.

The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Robert Kaestner has nothing to disclose.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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In addition to working papers , the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals — the NBER Reporter , the NBER Digest , the Bulletin on Retirement and Disability , the Bulletin on Health , and the Bulletin on Entrepreneurship  — as well as online conference reports , video lectures , and interviews .

Research uncovers differences between men and women in sleep, circadian rhythms and metabolism

A new review of research evidence has explored the key differences in how women and men sleep, variations in their body clocks, and how this affects their metabolism.

Published in Sleep Medicine Reviews , the paper highlights the crucial role sex plays in understanding these factors and suggests a person's biological sex should be considered when treating sleep, circadian rhythm and metabolic disorders.

Differences in sleep

The review found women rate their sleep quality lower than men's and report more fluctuations in their quality of sleep, corresponding to changes throughout the menstrual cycle.

"Lower sleep quality is associated with anxiety and depressive disorders, which are twice as common in women as in men," says Dr Sarah L. Chellappa from the University of Southampton and senior author of the paper. "Women are also more likely than men to be diagnosed with insomnia, although the reasons are not entirely clear. Recognising and comprehending sex differences in sleep and circadian rhythms is essential for tailoring approaches and treatment strategies for sleep disorders and associated mental health conditions."

The paper's authors also found women have a 25 to 50 per cent higher likelihood of developing restless legs syndrome and are up to four times as likely to develop sleep-related eating disorder, where people eat repeatedly during the night.

Meanwhile, men are three times more likely to be diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). OSA manifests differently in women and men, which might explain this disparity. OSA is associated with a heightened risk of heart failure in women, but not men.

Sleep lab studies found women sleep more than men, spending around 8 minutes longer in non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, where brain activity slows down. While the time we spend in NREM declines with age, this decline is more substantial in older men. Women also entered REM sleep, characterised by high levels of brain activity and vivid dreaming, earlier than men.

Variations in body clocks

The team of all women researchers from the University of Southampton in the UK, and Stanford University and Harvard University in the United States, found differences between the sexes are also present in our circadian rhythms.

They found melatonin, a hormone that helps with the timing of circadian rhythms and sleep, is secreted earlier in women than men. Core body temperature, which is at its highest before sleep and its lowest a few hours before waking, follows a similar pattern, reaching its peak earlier in women than in men.

Corresponding to these findings, other studies suggest women's intrinsic circadian periods are shorter than men's by around six minutes.

Dr Renske Lok from Stanford University, who led the review, says: "While this difference may be small, it is significant. The misalignment between the central body clock and the sleep/wake cycle is approximately five times larger in women than in men. Imagine if someone's watch was consistently running six minutes faster or slower. Over the course of days, weeks, and months, this difference can lead to a noticeable misalignment between the internal clock and external cues, such as light and darkness.

"Disruptions in circadian rhythms have been linked to various health problems, including sleep disorders, mood disorders and impaired cognitive function. Even minor differences in circadian periods can have significant implications for overall health and well-being."

Men tend to be later chronotypes, preferring to go to bed and wake up later than women. This may lead to social jet lag, where their circadian rhythm doesn't align with social demands, like work. They also have less consistent rest-activity schedules than women on a day-to-day basis.

Impact on metabolism

The research team also investigated if the global increase in obesity might be partially related to people not getting enough sleep -- with 30 per cent of 30- to 64-year-olds sleeping less than six hours a night in the United States, with similar numbers in Europe.

There were big differences between how women's and men's brains responded to pictures of food after sleep deprivation. Brain networks associated with cognitive (decision making) and affective (emotional) processes were twice as active in women than in men. Another study found women had a 1.5 times higher activation in the limbic region (involved in emotion processing, memory formation, and behavioural regulation) in response to images of sweet food compared to men.

Despite this difference in brain activity, men tend to overeat more than women in response to sleep loss. Another study found more fragmented sleep, taking longer to get to sleep, and spending more time in bed trying to get to sleep were only associated with more hunger in men.

Both women and men nightshift workers are more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, but this risk is higher in men. Sixty-six per cent of women nightshift workers experienced emotional eating and another study suggests they are around 1.5 times more likely to be overweight or obese compared to women working day shifts.

The researchers also found emerging evidence on how women and men respond differently to treatments for sleep and circadian disorders. For example, weight loss was more successful in treating women with OSA than men, while women prescribed zolpidem (an insomnia medication) may require a lower dosage than men to avoid lingering sleepiness the next morning.

Dr Chellappa added: "Most of sleep and circadian interventions are a newly emerging field with limited research on sex differences. As we understand more about how women and men sleep, differences in their circadian rhythms and how these affect their metabolism, we can move towards more precise and personalised healthcare which enhances the likelihood of positive outcomes."

The research was funded by the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, the US Department of Defense and the National Institute of Health.

• Sleep Disorder Research
• Insomnia Research
• Gender Difference
• Sleep Disorders
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea
• Circadian rhythm sleep disorder
• Glutamic acid
• Sleep deprivation

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Southampton . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Renske Lok, Jingyi Qian, Sarah L. Chellappa. Sex differences in sleep, circadian rhythms, and metabolism: Implications for precision medicine . Sleep Medicine Reviews , 2024; 75: 101926 DOI: 10.1016/j.smrv.2024.101926

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7 facts about americans and taxes.

Spring reliably brings a whirlwind of number-crunching and form-filing as Americans finish their tax returns. Altogether, the IRS expects to process more than 160 million individual and business tax returns this season.

Ahead of Tax Day on April 15, here are seven facts about Americans and federal taxes, drawn from Pew Research Center surveys and analyses of federal data.

Ahead of Tax Day 2024, Pew Research Center sought to understand Americans’ views of the federal tax system and outline some of its features.

The public opinion data in this analysis comes from Pew Research Center surveys. Links to these surveys, including details about their methodologies, are available in the text.

The external data comes from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the IRS Data Book . Data is reported by fiscal year, which for the federal government begins Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30. For example, fiscal 2024 began Oct. 1, 2023, and ends Sept. 30, 2024.

A majority of Americans feel that corporations and wealthy people don’t pay their fair share in taxes, according to a Center survey from spring 2023 . About six-in-ten U.S. adults say they’re bothered a lot by the feeling that some corporations (61%) and some wealthy people (60%) don’t pay their fair share.

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to feel this way. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, about three-quarters say they’re bothered a lot by the feeling that some corporations (77%) and some wealthy people (77%) don’t pay their fair share. Much smaller shares of Republicans and GOP leaners share these views (46% say this about corporations and 43% about the wealthy).

Meanwhile, about two-thirds of Americans (65%) support raising tax rates on large businesses and corporations, and a similar share (61%) support raising tax rates on households with annual incomes over $400,000. Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to say these tax rates should increase.

Just over half of U.S. adults feel they personally pay more than what is fair, considering what they get in return from the federal government, according to the same survey.

This sentiment has grown more widespread in recent years: 56% of Americans now say they pay more than their fair share in taxes, up from 49% in 2021. Roughly a third (34%) say they pay about the right amount, and 8% say they pay less than their fair share.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they pay more than their fair share (63% vs. 50%), though the share of Democrats who feel this way has risen since 2021. (The share among Republicans is statistically unchanged from 2021.)

Many Americans are frustrated by the complexity of the federal tax system, according to the same survey. About half (53%) say its complexity bothers them a lot. Of the aspects of the federal tax system that we asked about, this was the top frustration among Republicans – 59% say it bothers them a lot, compared with 49% of Democrats.

Undeniably, the federal tax code is a massive document, and it has only gotten longer over time. The printed 2022 edition of the Internal Revenue Code clocks in at 4,192 pages, excluding front matter. Income tax law alone accounts for over half of those pages (2,544).

The public is divided in its views of the IRS. In a separate spring 2023 Center survey , 51% of Americans said they have an unfavorable opinion of the government tax agency, while 42% had a favorable view of the IRS. Still, of the 16 federal agencies and departments we asked about, the IRS was among the least popular on the list.

Views of the IRS differ greatly by party:

• Among Republicans, 29% have a favorable view and 64% have an unfavorable view.
• Among Democrats, it’s 53% favorable and 40% unfavorable.

On balance, Democrats offer much more positive opinions than Republicans when it comes to most of the federal agencies we asked about. Even so, the IRS ranks near the bottom of their list.

Individual income taxes are by far the government’s largest single source of revenue, according to estimates from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The federal government expects to collect about $2.5 trillion in individual income taxes in fiscal year 2024. That accounts for nearly half (49%) of its total estimated receipts for the year. The next largest chunk comes from Social Security taxes (including those for disability and retirement programs), which are projected to pull in $1.2 trillion this fiscal year (24%).

By comparison, corporate income taxes are estimated to bring in $612.8 billion, or 12% of this fiscal year’s federal receipts. And excise taxes – which include things like transportation trust fund revenue and taxes on alcohol, tobacco and crude oil – are expected to come to $99.7 billion, or 2% of receipts.

American tax dollars mostly go to social services. Human services – including education, health, Social Security, Medicare, income security and veterans benefits – together will account for 66% ($4.6 trillion) of federal government spending in fiscal 2024, according to OMB estimates.

An estimated 13% ($907.7 billion) will go toward defense spending. Another 13% ($888.6 billion) will repay net interest on government debt, and 10% ($726.9 billion) will fund all other functions, including energy, transportation, agriculture and more.

Related: 6 facts about Americans’ views of government spending and the deficit

The vast majority of Americans e-file their taxes, according to IRS data . In fiscal 2022, 150.6 million individual federal income tax returns were filed electronically, accounting for 94% of all individual filings that year.

Unsurprisingly, e-filing has become more popular since the turn of the century. Fiscal 2000, the earliest year for which comparable data is available, saw 35.4 million individual income tax returns filed electronically (including those filed over the phone). These accounted for just 28% of individual filings that year.

By fiscal 2005, more than half of individual income tax returns (52%) were filed electronically.

Note: This is an update combining information from two posts originally published in 2014 and 2015.

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Top tax frustrations for Americans: The feeling that some corporations, wealthy people don’t pay fair share

Growing partisan divide over fairness of the nation’s tax system, public has mixed expectations for new tax law, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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Yes, we’re divided. But new AP-NORC poll shows Americans still agree on most core American values

Most U.S. adults share many core values on what it means to be an American despite the country’s deep political polarization according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

FILE - The Capitol is seen as water sprinklers soak the National Mall on a hot summer morning in Washington, July 15, 2022. A new poll finds that most Americans share many core values on what it means to be an American despite the country’s deep political polarization. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 9 in 10 U.S. adults say the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law and the right to privacy are important or very important to the U.S.’s identity as a nation.(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite the country’s deep political polarization, most Americans share many core beliefs about what it means to be an American, according to a new poll.

The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 9 in 10 U.S. adults say the right to vote, the right to equal protection under the law and the right to privacy are extremely important or very important to the United States’ identity as a nation. The survey also found that 84% feel the same way about the freedom of religion.

The results, which included perspectives on a number of different freedoms and rights, have only small variances between Republicans and Democrats except on the right to bear arms, which Republicans are more likely to see as core to the nation’s identity. The overall findings are striking because they come at a time of extreme partisanship when political agreements seem rare and concerns are heightened over the potential for violence during a volatile presidential election year.

“If you get a bunch of normal people at random and put them in a room together and chat about issues, there’s a lot more convergence than you might imagine,” said Michael Albertus, a political science professor at the University of Chicago.

A more pessimistic assessment of the country was reflected in another finding — that only about 3 in 10 Americans believe the nation’s democracy is functioning well. About half say the U.S. is a poorly functioning democracy, while 14% say the U.S. is not a democracy.

The tension between the broad consensus on the country’s fundamental values and discontent with how well its form of government is working is not a surprise, experts say.

“Part of it is really our leaders are not reflecting the electorate, and they behave in a way that’s much more polarized than what the electorate is,” said Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University.

Most Americans, she said, “are pretty moderate, but they’ve been riled up to hate people of the other party for being different from them culturally, racially and religiously.”

The AP-NORC poll also found broad agreement on the importance of some key values for the U.S.’s identity as a country. About three-quarters of U.S. adults agree that a democratically elected government is extremely or very important, and about 8 in 10 think the same about the ability of people living in the U.S. to get good jobs and achieve the American dream.

But what achieving that dream means — and which values are most fundamental to American culture — isn’t something all Americans agree on.

Democrats are more likely than Republicans — 71% to 38% — to believe that the ability to come to the U.S. from elsewhere in the world to escape violence or find economic opportunities is core to the country’s identity. A majority of Republicans, 58%, think a culture grounded in Christian values and beliefs is an essential characteristic, compared to only 18% of Democrats.

Juan Sierra, 51, a naturalized citizen whose family immigrated from the Dominican Republic after a hurricane destroyed his father’s cement business, said it is very important to him that the U.S. be seen as a place of opportunity.

The Capitol is seen as water sprinklers soak the National Mall on a hot summer morning in Washington, July 15, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The industrial technician in Port St. Lucie, Florida, said he believes democracy is working and will continue to do so “as long as there are good people in government.”

Sierra also said it was extremely important that people have freedom of religion, although he had concerns over the nation’s identity being tied to Christianity.

“We’re seeing what happens right now when laws are passed and decisions are made based on someone’s religion,” he said, citing the Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February that frozen embryos can be considered children and be afforded legal protections, a decision that temporarily halted IVF procedures in the state.

Susan Johnson, a 76-year-old Republican living in the Dallas suburbs, said the nation’s standing as a beacon to others who need refuge is very important, but said that could not override concerns about border security.

“We need people working,” she said. “We just need them to come the right way.”

Johnson also said she believes it’s extremely important that the nation’s identity be grounded in spirituality.

“Whether or not you’re Mormon or a Muslim or a Christian, they just have to have some higher power to reach up to,” she said. “The country is going to fall apart if we don’t believe in God.”

The poll found few divisions on democracy as a system in theory, but it identified one notable gap: younger Americans between the ages of 18 to 29 were less likely than those 60 and older to say the U.S. is a well-functioning democracy. They’re also less likely than older Americans to believe that some characteristics are essential to the U.S.’s character as a nation, including having a democratically elected government. About 6 in 10 younger adults see this as important, compared to about 9 in 10 older adults.

Palakjot Singh, a 21-year-old college student in Fresno, California, identified himself as a Republican and said he had a better quality of life when Donald Trump was president. He said the U.S. is not a well-functioning democracy in part because people are not open to debating different points of view compared to previous generations.

“There is not good communication,” he said. “Nobody is sitting together trying to get to one point.”

Howard Lavine, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the generational split is understandable. Many younger people don’t remember a time when those with opposing views and from different political backgrounds could get together and “come over to your house.” Their frame of reference is the hyper partisanship of the Trump years, he said.

Joe Lagle, 55, a retired Air Force veteran in Colorado Springs who said he has not voted for either President Joe Biden or Trump, said the nation’s various rights are “all important” but believes they are being eroded by intolerance and well-meaning but shortsighted people.

Mike Maloy, 41, an engineer in Greensboro, North Carolina, said having those rights and freedoms “doesn’t necessarily mean the U.S. is a functioning democracy.”

“Everything is run by a handful of people and their corporations,” he said. “That’s not a democracy.”

A Democrat, Maloy cited as an example this year’s presidential primary in North Carolina, when Biden was the lone candidate on the ballot. He called that “frustrating” and said the result was that voters “had no choice.”

The poll of 1,282 adults was conducted March 21-25, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Associated Press polling writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here . The AP is solely responsible for all content.