Critical Evidence

Critical Evidence looks at the world around us and asks what role evidence law plays in entrenching inequality and injustice. With chapters written by key Critical Evidence scholars, it also shows how interrogating and reforming the Rules of Evidence can lead to truer and more just outcomes.

Critical Evidence taps into a growing body of scholarship that demonstrates evidence law is fundamentally about power, setting the boundaries of whose voices will be heard and what types of knowledge will be cognizable in courts of law in the United States. The book brings together leading and emerging Critical Evidence scholars to examine the major rules that govern admissibility in court, from relevancy to hearsay to privileges. These scholars show that many such rules are not neutral as constructed or applied, but, in fact, privilege insiders at the expense of outsiders, namely poor people, women, people of color, disabled people, and LGBTQ+ people. Through a close reading of rules and doctrine, Critical Evidence shows that evidence law must and should change in order to serve as a system that promotes truth, justice and fairness for all in the American legal system.