Evidence Marshalling and Argument Structuring by Investigators and Advocates

对我们法律体系中所遇到的一系列证据和推理问题的研究，占据了许多不同学科的研究人员。陪审员、律师和法官的行为受到了很多关注。同样重要的，虽然不经常被研究，是各种推理和决策任务需要其他人，如调查员和倡导者。调查人员和辩护人发挥作用的方式直接影响到法律制度中其他行为者随后作出的推论和选择。本研究涉及调查人员和辩护人在事实调查和其他活动中所发挥的推理和决定作用，然后才进行审判或以其他方式解决问题。该项目的目标是研究编组或组织证据的方法，这些证据将增强推理能力，构建复杂的论点，并在准备刑事或民事案件的各个阶段协助决策。这项研究涉及计算机辅助的复杂案例模拟，这将导致构建证据编组方法的“推理网络”。这项研究不仅在法律环境中具有理论和实践意义，而且对许多其他重要环境（如医学，科学，商业和情报分析）的推理和决策行为也有影响。研究结果有望为证明和说服技术引入更高水平的严谨性、清晰度和公平性。基于计算机的证据编组系统的原型网络将有助于说明事实调查实践和教学中的理论问题，并可能提供目前许多开发基于计算机的诉讼和其他与推理有关的系统的努力所缺乏的健全的推理基础。

Study of a wide array of the evidential and inferential issues encountered in our system of law occupies researchers from many different disciplines. Much attention has focused on the behavior of jurors, attorneys, and judges. Of equal importance, though not so frequently studied, are the various inferential and decisional tasks required of others such as investigators and advocates. The manner in which investigators and advocates play their roles has a direct bearing upon subsequent inferences and choices made by other actors in the legal system. This research concerns the inferential and decisional roles played by investigators and advocates during fact investigation and other activities before a matter comes to trial or is settled by other means. The objectives of the project are to study ways of marshalling or organizing evidence that will enhance reasoning, structuring complex arguments, and assisting in decisionmaking at various points during the preparation of criminal or civil cases. The study involves computer-assisted simulations of complex cases that will result in the structuring of "inferential networks" of evidence marshalling methods. This research is not only of theoretical and practical significance in a legal context, but also bears on inferential and decisional behavior in many other important contexts such as medicine, science, business, and intelligence analysis. The results promise to introduce new levels of rigor, clarity, and fairness into the technology of proof and persuasion. The linked networks of prototype computer-based evidence marshalling systems will be useful in illustrating theoretical issues in the practice and teaching of fact investigation and may provide the sound inferential basis now lacking in many current efforts to develop computer-based litigation and other inference-related systems.