LAWS 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Adversarial System
17 Apr 2017
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Today: adjudication: brooks, the judge and the adversary system" , saunders, science, law and the expert witness , roach, wrongful convictions: adversarial and inquisitorial themes . The adversarial system: adversarial legalism (sanders, 4 components of adversarialism, the civil jury, the use of party-controlled pre-trial investigations, the relatively passive role of the judge, the method of obtaining and using expert opinions. Limits judge"s function, i. e. , judges can only adjudicate disputes formally presented to them by the parties: parties are given sole responsibility for defining the dispute, and the judge can only adjudicate on issues presented by the parties. Limits to party autonomy: judges cannot initiate proceedings, but can stop frivolous actions", judges can streamline" or rationalize process, judges are assisted by lawyers and their obligations to the court. Judge"s role is passive: cannot seek out disputes to adjudicate, cannot become too actively involved in the presentation of disputes (except as private citizen)
