Self-study
P1
By the time Bentham turned his interest to the subject, late in the eighteenth century, most components of modern evidence law had been assembled. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Modern evidence law
Historical Example ·
Parties to a case cannot testify
E.g., a defendant in a criminal case had no right to testify. This rule has been abandoned.
P2
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Historical Context ·
Exclusionary rules were typical and over-applied
Usually based on rational grounds. But mechanically and hence over-applied.
P3
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Consequence / Problem ·
Obscured truth
As a consequence of exclusionary rules, truth would not emerge from trials.
Bentham's Solution ·
Inclusion is the rule, exclusion is the exception
If relevant, then include. Narrow exceptions made for exclusion. Flips the status quo of evidence law (exclusion rule, inclusion exception) on its head.
P4
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Problem / Critique ·
Some types of evidence are inherently unreliable
For example, interested-party testimony and hearsay evidence.
Solution / Rebuttal ·
Let the jury decide
Problem / Critique ·
Some relevant evidence is more likely to produce false verdict
Example ·
Evidence of defendant's past bank robberies
Sure, it's relevant. But it also prejudices the jury (meaning it makes jury think that being a bank-robber is in his character) and so hurts the jury's ability to decide correctly in this case.
Problem / Critique ·
Bentham's exceptions are inconsistently applied
Bentham concedes that there can be other values more important than admitting relevant evidence. That's why he excludes sacramental confessions. Okay, but that same reason should also apply to exclude other privileged communications.
P5
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Consequence ·
Bentham's principle prevails
Despite the concerns raise, Bentham's idea of admitting evidence by default and excluding evidence only when there are clear reasons for doing so is now the standard.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Problem-analysis
23.
Which one of the following ██ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Bentham questioned the ██████████ ██ ██████ █████ ██ █████ █████████
This doesn’t capture Bentham’s proposed solution. It’s also unsupported, because Bentham didn’t question modern evidence law; he questioned 18th-century evidence law.
b
Bentham's proposed reform ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███ █████████ ███ ███████████
This captures the passage’s focus on Bentham’s solution and the author’s opinion about it. Bentham’s proposed reform was imperfect, as described in P4, but overall an improvement.
c
Bentham's nonexclusion principle ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ █████████████
Although the author offers light criticism of Bentham’s principle, she doesn’t advocate for reexamining the principle.
d
Rules of legal ████████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ███ ████████████
This doesn’t capture Bentham’s proposed solution.
e
Despite their impairment ██ ████████ ███████████ █████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████
This doesn’t capture Bentham’s proposed solution.