Jordi Beltran

In jurisprudential literature, the adjective 'defeasible' appears as a predicate of many terms: concepts, laws, rules, reasoning, justification, proof, and so on. In this paper, we analyze the effects of some versions of the thesis of the defeasibility of legal norms on the reconstruction of the notion of legal validity. We analyze some possible justifications of this thesis considered as a claim concerning validity, and enquire into two possible sets of problems related to the defeasibility of the criteria of identification of a legal system. We also provide a formalization of some options regarding defeasible criteria of identification, which can be used as a tool for meta-jurisprudential analysis. Finally, the thesis according to which defeasibility is better conceived of as a feature of legal application is examined and questioned

Based on the ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in V.R.P., V.P.C. y otros vs. Nicaragua, this paper analyses three main issues: 1) the judges’ duty to justify their fact finding and its scope; 2) the persuasive (or subjective) and the rational approaches to evidence and proof; and 3) the interrelation between 1) and 2) and their implementation in criminal jury trials. It criticises the Inter-American Court’s thesis that trial by jury systems, with no justified fact finding and by intime conviction, are not contrary to the guarantees provided by Article 8 of the American Convention of Human Rights.

This book offers a transnational perspective of evidentiary problems, drawing on insights from different systems and legal traditions. It avoids the isolated manner of analyzing evidence and proof within each Common Law and Civil Law tradition. Instead, it features contributions from leading authors in the evidentiary field from a variety of jurisdictions and offers an overview of essential topics that are of both theoretical and practical interest. The collection examines evidence not only as a transnational field, but in a cross-disciplinary context. Each chapter engages with the interdisciplinary themes cutting through the issues discussed, benefiting from the expertise and experience of their diverse authors.