Handbook

This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the role that expert evidence plays in contemporary civil and criminal trials, in Australia and related common law jurisdictions, and an opportunity to engage in critical reflection and analysis of contemporary approaches to expert evidence. It aims to provide students with a working knowledge of the substantive admissibility and procedural rules, as well as an understanding of the range of divergent and often inconsistent approaches to understanding the sciences and their use in legal settings. Drawing on the insights from a range of multidisciplinary perspectives, the course aims to provide a sense of the richness of contemporary critical theory and scientific analysis, and the possibilities opened up in applying these insights to real-world contexts, in this case expert opinion evidence and its role in legal practice. Thus the course aims to assist students contemplating practice, including helping students to think about appropriate experts; how to integrate expert opinion evidence into the construction of a persuasive case; as well as providing a conceptual apparatus to inform the destabilisation of expert evidence and to critically deconstruct judgments predicated upon expert opinions.