| Scientific inquiry and legal advocacy are two different epistemic models. Science aims at analyzing phenomenon and constituting systematic knowledge, while law aims at making decisions about the issues of truth within a limited period. In the process of constructing factual truth based on scientific evidence, however, inquiry is twining with advocacy. Due to its complexity, a crucial problem in applying scientific evidence is its admissibility. The admissibility of scientific evidence means the standards or conditions to admit an item of scientific evidence as the premise to prove truth.No matter what was generally accepted of Frye, or what Daubert had provided for judges to carry out their responsibility as a gatekeeper, they were all subject to wide criticism. The main reason lies in that the current logical relationship among the validity, reliability and admissibility set for scientific evidence is with much confusion. The confused epistemological presumption of the standard of admissibility for scientific evidence makes it difficult to be a rule in reality, resulting in the failure of U. S. Federal Rule of Evidence to make a clear stipulation for the admissibility of scientific evidence.By a historical introduction and epistemological rethinking to the standards of admissibility for scientific evidence, this paper examines the structure of admissibility from both internal and external properties according to the functions of scientific evidence in truth-seeking. The internal properties of scientific evidence are embodied in three aspects, that is, the validity, the reliability and the relevance. This is a process of naturalized cognitive way. The scientific validity depends on both scientific principles and methods, and the reliability of scientific evidence is influenced by scientific uncertainty, reproducibility, causality, error rates, and the like. The external properties are embodied in the process of proving fact by using scientific evidence and the assessment of the credibility of scientific experts themselves who proffer the scientific evidence. Those assessments show a social dimension of scientific evidence, and reflect its external mechanism . According to the structure and properties of the admissibility of scientific evidence, we can epistemologically and systemically construct a system of the standards for the admissibility of scientific evidence. |
京公网安备11010102006664号 京ICP备2023015853号