Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Delafontaine, Ramses, author

Title Historians as expert judicial witnesses in tobacco litigation : a controversial legal practice / Ramses Delafontaine
Published Cham : Springer, [2015]
©2015

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xxv, 453 pages) : illustrations
Series Studies in the history of law and justice, 2198-9850 ; volume 4
Studies in the history of law and justice ; v. 4. 2198-9842
Contents 1. General Introduction -- Part I. HISTORY AND LAW -- 2. Introductory Theoretical Remarks on the Alleged Problematic Nature of the Interaction of History and Law -- 3. Clio's Modern Paradox Unraveled -- 3.1. Theoretical Historical Developments
Part II. HISTORIANS AS EXPERT WITNESSES -- 4. Introduction Part II -- 5. Modern Interactions of Law and History -- 5.1. The Dreyfus Affair: Paleography -- 5.2. The Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals: The Birth of International Tribunals -- 5.3. The Amicus Curiae Brief: The Webster Case -- 6. The Globalization of the Historian as an Expert Witness -- 6.1. The Second Wave: Post-Holocaust and Post-World War II Litigation -- 6.2. A Third Wave: Irving v. Lipstadt: Holocaust Denial in Court -- 7. Litigation-Driven History -- 7.1. Expert Witnessing Through the Ages -- 7.2. An Introduction to Historians as Expert Witnesses in American Courts -- 7.3. A Guide to the Practice of Expert Witnessing by Historians -- 7.4. Preliminary Conclusions on the Historian as an Expert Witness in American Courts -- 8. A Reassessment of Wijffels' Concept of Forensic History
Part III. TOBACCO WARS -- 9. Introduction Part III -- 10. A History of Tobacco -- 10.1. The Early History of the Nicotiana Tabacum -- 10.2. The Shift to Cigarettes -- 10.3. The Rise of a Deadly Product -- 11. Tobacco and Health: Towards a Contemporary Perspective -- 11.1. The Discovery of Tobacco Health Hazards -- 11.2. The Reports of the Surgeon General -- 12. The Tobacco Industry and Its Tactics -- 12.1. The Tobacco Controversy: A Careful Construction -- 13. Tobacco Litigation -- 13.1. The First Wave: Cipollone v. Liggett Group -- 13.2. The Second Wave: Government v. The Tobacco Industry -- 13.3. The Third Wave: Engle Progeny Cases -- 13.4. Tobacco Tactics in Court: Legal Game Theory -- 14. United States v. Philip Morris et al. -- 14.1. Brandt's Experience -- 14.2. Expert Historians Take the Stand -- 14.3. The Final Judgment by Judge Kessler -- 14.4. Confronting Ethics with De Baets -- 15. Debates: Reflections in Academic and National Media -- 15.1. Proctor in Nature -- 15.2. Laura Maggi in The American Prospect -- 15.3. Patricia Cohen in The New York Times -- 15.4. David Rothman in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine -- 15.5. Proctor in The Lancet -- 15.6. The Tobacco Companies v. Robert Proctor -- 15.7. Polemic Debates -- 16. Historians in Tobacco Litigation, a Conclusion -- 16.1. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control -- 16.2. Litigation as a Solution -- 16.3. The Role of Historians in Tobacco Litigation -- 17. Final Conclusion on the Involvement of Historians in Tobacco Litigation -- 18. Final Conclusion -- Five General Principles on Forensic History
Appendices -- Appendix I. Expert Witness Profiles -- Appendix II. Historians Who Have Testified as an Expert Witness in Tobacco Litigation -- Appendix III. Timetable Involvement Historians as Expert Witnesses in Tobacco Cases -- Appendix IV. A Code of Ethics for Historians / by Antoon De Baets
Summary "Historian Ramses Delafontaine presents an engaging examination of a controversial legal practice: the historian as an expert judicial witness. This book focuses on tobacco litigation in the U.S. wherein 50 historians have witnessed in 314 court cases from 1986 to 2014. The author examines the use of historical arguments in court and investigates how a legal context influences historical narratives and discourse in forensic history. Delafontaine asserts that the courtroom is a performative and fact-making theatre. Nonetheless, he argues that the civic responsibility of the historian should not end at the threshold of the courtroom where history and truth hang in the balance. The book is divided into three parts featuring an impressive range of European and American case studies. The first part provides a theoretical framework on the issues which arise when history and law interact. The second part gives a comparative overview of European and American examples of forensic history. This part also reviews U.S. legal rules and case law on expert evidence, as well as extralegal challenges historians face as experts. The third part covers a series of tobacco-related trials. With remunerations as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars and no peer-reviewed publications or communication on the part of the historians hired by the tobacco companies the question arises whether some historians are willing to trade their reputation and that of their university for the benefit of an interested party. The book further provides 50 expert profiles of the historians active in tobacco litigation, lists detailing the manner of the expert's involvement, and West Law references to these cases. This book offers profound and thought-provoking insights on the post-war forensification of history from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this way, Delafontaine makes a stirring call for debate on the contemporary engagement of historians as expert judicial witnesses in U.S. tobacco litigation."--Publisher's description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Online resource; title from PDF title page (Ebsco, viewed April 30, 2015)
In Springer eBooks
Subject Forensic historians -- United States
Evidence, Expert -- United States
Products liability -- Tobacco -- United States
Trials (Products liability) -- United States
History.
History
history (discipline)
History.
Jurisprudence & philosophy of law.
International law.
LAW -- Evidence.
Forensic historians
Evidence, Expert
Products liability -- Tobacco
Trials (Products liability)
United States
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9783319142920
3319142925