Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Connecticut Law Review
Publication Date
1991
Abstract
As the population increases, as natural resources decrease, and as,-economic competition intensifies, it becomes ever more important for rivate parties, regulatory agencies, and courts to make decisions that are factually correct and efficient as well as effective. The ability to make such decisions about public health, safety, and the environment, for example, often depends upon the best use of available scientific information. It is not surprising, therefore, that during the last several decades administrative agencies with scientific expertise have multiplied and the areas regulated by those agencies have broadened. Nor is it surprising that the courts have been inundated with scientific information in both civil and criminal proceedings. Parties want to use the most recent scientific advances to forecast the effects of decisions upon their interests and to argue against decisions with adverse consequences.
The sophistication of scientific methodology, the amount of scientific information about the world, and the desire of parties to use those methods and that information in legal decision making all seem to be growing apace.
Recommended Citation
Vern R. Walker,
The Siren Songs of Science: Toward a Taxonomy of Scientific Uncertainty for Decisionmakers, 23 Conn. L. Rev. 567
(1991)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/59