Science and technology resources for the courts

Many legal authorities agree that this nation's judiciary is ill-equipped to adjudicate disputes involving complex scientific and technological issues. The author examines a number of possible means of improving the abilities of the judiciary to deal with such disputes. For simplicity and concreteness, the author concentrates on the federal judiciary, but it is likely that the discussion is relevant to state judicial systems as well as to both federal and state administrative agency adjudicative systems. Topics discussed include science courses for the judiciary, judicial manuals reviewing the state of knowledge in highly-specialized scientific areas, and modifying the rules of evidence governing expert testimony. Careful attention is paid to the problem of keeping the aforementioned possibilities consistent with the adversary process, which is the predominant framework within which the author expects federal court disputes to be resolved in the foreseeable future.