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.........................................................................................................................Book DescriptionOne of the pricipal debates in constitutional law today is whether the United States Constitution is a static document encased in the beliefs of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, or is living framework of governance, that, while foundational, must evolve with changing circumstances, different times, and new knowledge. Chief justice john marshall, a strong advocate of a living Constitution, once famously declared that the Constitution was “intended to endure for ages to come”. David L. Faigman stands squarely in this tradition. In Constitutional fictions: A united Theory of Constitutional Facts, he addresses how Constitutional doctrine should develop and be adapted “to the various crises of human affairs”Constitutional fictions explores the subject of how facts are, and how they should be, integrated into constitutional decision making. Faigman argues that despite the important part facts play in constitutional discourse, a philosophical framework has not been developed to govern their fundamental role in shaping the meaning and the application of the Constitution. Faigman articulates a new taxonomy for describing fact-finding in constitutional cases and provides a comprehensive scheme for employing facts in constitutional law. His approach encompasses facts broadly defined, nut e puts special emphasis on facts that are known through the methods of science. By presenting historical cases, such as Brown v. board f education and Roe v. Wade, faigman considers how facts should be processed and incorporated into constitutional decisions and argues that if the Supreme Court fails to place constitutional law on a realistic empirical foundation, then ultimately their “empirical world remains mired in the Dark ages”..........................................................................................................................ContentsChapter 1. Facts in Constitutional CasesChapter 2. Scientific Realism in Constitutional LawChapter 3. A Taxonomy of Constitutional FactsChapter 4. Defining the Constitution’s Frames of ReferenceChapter 5. Proving Constitutional Facts: Sources and Burdens of Proof for Doctrinal, Reviewable and Case-Specific FactsChapter 6. Judicial Review of Constitutional Fact-Finding: Juries, Judges, Legislature, and Administrative AgenciesChapter 7. The Prospect of Courts Reviewing Higher Court Constitutional Fact-FindingChapter 8. A United Theory of Constitutional FactsNotes Index.........................................................................................................................Author DetailsDavid L. Faigman is the John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He received both his M.A. in Psychology and J.D. degrees from the University of Virginia. After law school, Professor Faigman clerked for Judge Thomas Reavley, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He writes extensively on the use of science in law. He is the author of Laboratory of Justice: The Supreme Court's 200-Year Struggle to Integrate Science and the Law (2004), Legal Alchemy: The Use and Misuse of Science in the Law (1999), and is a co-author of the five-volume treatise, Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony (2007-2008 edition), with Michael Saks, Joseph Sanders, and Edward Cheng, which has been cited several times by the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Faigman lectures regularly to state and federal judges on issues concerning science and the law, and has served as a reviewer for an assortment of scientific journals and organizations, including Science, the National Science Foundation, the National Academies of Science, Law and Human Behavior, American Psychologist, Jurimetrics, and Psychology, Public Policy and the Law..........................................................................................................................
