La science à la barre

• Main Author: Rainer Maria Kiesow
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Les Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme 2014-09-01
• Series: Socio
• Subjects: law; expert; interpretation; judge; proof; science
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/socio/665

The relation between law and science forms a complex history. Is law a science? Is science a battle of arguments like law? Where does the truth lie? Today illusions and hopes in the field of law and the sciences have been radicalised by the proliferation of scientific expertise in trials. The question of science in law or of law in science is thus subject to procedures in a struggle which will necessarily see a decision at the end. This judgement can only be one which is ignorant of the scientific truth because the judge decides in the dark, an ignorance on which the scientific expert cannot shed light, except if he were to put himself in the judge’s seat. This would be the end of law, dealing a mortal blow to uncertainty. Truth would win the day. But with the human life which is at issue in the trials, is it a question of being (scientifically) right?