Volume 14, Issue 1 -

Critics of the American system of justice sometimes perceive “inquisitorialism” as an attractive alternative. In this article we will report a comparative study investigating the way forensic DNA evidence is handled in criminal prosecutions in the Swiss and American systems, focusing particularly on the behavior of criminal defense lawyers. We will argue that the successes and failures of American and Swiss lawyers in this context offer important insights into the relative strengths and limitations of adversarial and non-adversarial legal systems.

An expert witness is one who is allowed to provide opinion testimony at trial based upon his or her specialized knowledge, training or experience, on matters that are relevant to the issues in the case and will help the fact finder to reach a decision. However, more often than not, these experts are found to be biased in several manners and thus render the exercise useless in the eyes of the Court. This paper discusses the various ways an expert can be considered to biased, the reasons behind such bias and the ways to establish bias in an expert witness.