Self-paced
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
25.
The author mentions
a
suggest a situation ██ █████ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████████ ███ ██ ████████████
This best captures the purpose as explained above. Bentham’s rule is the “nonexclusion principle.” The author suggests we might not want to apply this rule to conversations between social workers and their clients.
b
cite an example ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██████
We don’t know that these objections “were raised” to Bentham’s proposed reform. P4 describes the author’s own criticism; but the author never indicates whether people at the time Bentham’s rule was being considered also raised these same criticisms.
c
illustrate the conflict ███████ █████████ ██████ █████████
The purpose relates to how Bentham’s nonexclusionary rule should apply. Although the author would acknowledge that there are competing social interests, this isn’t why the author brings up the example.
d
demonstrate the difference ███████ ██████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████
The purpose relates to how Bentham’s nonexclusionary rule should apply. Also, it’s not clear how conversations between social workers and their clients illustrate the difference between interests and values.
e
emphasize that Bentham's ██████████ ██ ███ ████████████ █████████ ███████ █ ████ █████ ██ ██████████
Actually, Bentham’s exceptions to the nonexclusion principle did not include conversations between social workers and clients. The author’s point at the end of P4 is that Bentham’s reasoning for allowing some exceptions justified allowing other exceptions that he did not actually allow.