Forensic Law Casebook: Judicial Reasoning and the Application of Forensic Science in Criminal Cases

While  there are several texts that focus on forensic science techniques and  applications, there are few to no quality books that adequately address  the judicial interpretation of forensic legal and scientific principles.  The field of forensic science and law has long been in need of a  historic casebook.

Forensic Law Casebook: Judicial Reasoning and the Application of Forensic Science in Criminal Cases fills the current void by reviewing actual case law and translating the  practical application of science to the courtroom. Each chapter  represents a unique forensic discipline, providing a short introduction  to the subject matter, the relevant case law and court cases that  pertain to that subject area and posing a variety of questions and  issues to the student. All cases provided contain a sufficient portion  of the legal decision - and its implications to the evidence and  analytical practices of that discipline - in order to then pose critical  and analytical questions to the student, once they have fully read the  case material and the decision and considered its implications.

Each  chapter ends its theoretical examination with real-world experience  encountered by those laboring in the investigative and collection  processes - as well as problems or challenges encountered by those  employed in the office of the prosecutor, public defender, medical  examiner or other aligned office. This last section of each chapter  gives true meaning and impact as to how forensic law decision-making  impacts forensic practitioners, and a true understanding of the  responsibility placed on law enforcement, investigators and scientists  tasked with collecting, preserving and analyzing the evidence.

Forensic Law Casebook provides the reader with an array of legal cases and decisions that lay  out the parameters of forensic law and its evidentiary value. In the  end, what emerges from this are the bedrock principles that guide  current forensic evidence and the admissibility of various practices  common to the field applications of forensic science. Practitioners, law  students, undergraduate and graduate students in compatible majors - as  well as law and university libraries - will benefit from this essential  reference and adjunct to anyone studying forensic science,  criminalistics and the law.