AALS and National Academies of Sciences, Committee on Science, Technology, and Law Joint Program

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Session Type: AALS Programs

Session Capacity: 280

Location: New York Hilton Midtown

Room: Rendezvous Trianon

Floor: Third Floor

Lawyers and judges routinely confront complex issues of science and technology in the context of toxic torts, economic damages, medical malpractice, patent, and criminal cases. All of these involve the consideration of complex scientific and technical testimony in order to render a reasoned and principled judgment. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., judges and attorneys have on occasion struggled to apply standards of science and engineering to proffered expert testimony.

Join this distinguished panel of federal judges, each of whom has led the development of a National Academy of Sciences report involving scientific evidence used in court. Judge Jeremy Fogel, director of the Federal Judicial Center, will moderate a discussion with Judge Gladys Kessler, co-chair of the joint NAS-FJC Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence; Judge Harry Edwards, co-chair of the NAS report, Forensic Sciences in the US: A Path Forward; and Judge Jed Rakoff, co-chair of NAS report, Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification.