Jack comments on The Cameron Todd Willingham test - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (83)
I'm quite familiar with these arguments. I'm not sure why you'd suppose I wasn't.
First, my claim is that determining matters of fact also requires a kind of expertise. Second, I'm generally skeptical about the extent to which an adversarial system protects judges from conflicts of interests, bribes and intimidation more than an inquisitorial system. Even in adversarial systems judges exercise a lot of control and are bribed and intimidated on a regular basis. Lots of liberal democracies have inquisitorial systems and aren't especially notorious for coerced or biased judges. Is there evidence that civil systems lead to more bribery? Third, this fear of judges siding with "the state" against private citizens can be (and is) remedied by checks and balances elsewhere (like the kind all liberal societies already have) and mechanisms to allow the public to fire judges. Fourth, what conflicts of interest aren't avoidable with oversight in an inquistorial system that are avoidable in a adversarial system?
I don't think a fair, rational system should include anything like jury nullification.
"The results are not perfect" considerably understates the problems, methinks.
What specific checks and balances do you have in mind? The current system can let serious forensic fraud and gross judicial misconduct continue for a very long time.