History of Trials and Proof in the Occident

There is an interesting new article on the "convergence" between legal and scientific "decision making." See Michael J. Saks & Samantha L. Neufeld, "Convergent evolution in law and science: the structure of decision-making under uncertainty," 10 Law, Probability and Risk 133 (2011). The authors discuss the history of trials, proof, and legal decision making in the Occident. But there is nary a mention of Jim Franklin's Science and Conjecture: Evidence and Probability before Pascal (2001). This simply will not do. Franklin's book dramatically revises many aspects of the standard account of that history. (Joseph Stigler, who is cited by the authors, said of Franklin's book: "The Science of Conjecture is an extraordinary work, a clearly written history of the ideas of evidence and of uncertainty before Pascal. Franklin has mastered a vast literature over thousands of years, bringing it together in scholarly fashion, fully annotated.")


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The dynamic evidence page

It's here: the law of evidence on Spindle Law. See also this post and this post.