Legal Status of International Studies & Evidence Reviews

Barrista-r

Given that Ireland is a small country, when it comes to certain scientific studies we sometimes need to rely on international studies or evidential reviews.

I'm just wondering if anyone knows of any case law which establishes the uses and limits of such studies and reviews?

Peregrinus

This isn't really a legal question. It's academics, researchers, scientists, etc who employ studies and reviews in their investigations. They make decisions about whether the probative value of a particular study or review is or is not affected by the fact that it was not conducted in Ireland. Obviously that's going to vary from discipline to discipline - research in, say, physics is going to produce the same results no matter where you conduct it, whereas a study of some social or cultural phenomenon — religiosity, say, or family dynamics — is going to be very dependent on the society and culture of the subjects of the study, and its results may need to be viewed in that light.

When academic knowledge is introduced into the legal process, it's usually in the form of expert evidence. It's the expert witness giving the evidence who decides which studies to cite, and to rely on, in forming their opinion. It's open to an expert witness from the other side to challenge that opinion and they can challenge it, if they wish, by suggesting the studies relied on have limited value. But it wouldn't be enough to say "the studies were conducted in Germany"; that's not in itself a very coherent challenge. You'd have to go on and make an argument about why it matters that the studies were conducted in Germany. And then the court would decide which of the two expert opinions it found more persuasive.

Barrista-r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120656252#Comment_120656252

That's great peregrinus, thank you.