Preface to the First Edition

• Author: Alan D. Gold
• Pages: 17-18

[xvii]

Preface to the First Edition

    the publisher’s suggestion to do a Canadian book on ex-

pert evidence in criminal cases from a scientic perspective for several reasons.

For one thing, the time was clearly right. An explosion of expert evidence in

the last several decades had brought an increasing concern about junk science

and pseudo-science in our courtrooms. As described in the text, in  the

U.S. Supreme Court in a line of cases beginning with Daubert v. Merrell Do w

Pharmaceu ticals mandated t he scientic method as the obligatory standard for

expert opinion evidence. Any doubt about the relevancy of Daubert for Can-

adian lawyers and judges was settled by R. v. J-L.J. when the Supreme Court

expressly re ferenced Daubert as a relevant authority and expressly adopted the

same elements of analysis. According to our highest courts, expert evidence was

now required to obey the rules of science to be admissible.

For another thing, the eort was clearly necessary. Although science knowl-

edge for lawyers and judges had eectively been mandated by our highest courts,

in truth there was a scarcity of legal reference works where that knowledge

could be obtained in a format accessible to lawyers and judges approaching the

topic for the rst time, yet helpful and useful to others familiar w ith the basic

concepts and issues.

Finally, and most important, such a book would be a most righteous eort.

Modern society, for the scientically literate, can be a depressing place. It is

a frustrating paradox that amid a society blessed with exponentially increas-

ing scientic knowledge accompanied by unimaginable technological achieve-

  U.S.  () [Daubert].

 []  S.C.R. .