American distrust of judges and juries drove the explosive complexity of evidence law.

Evidence

When a field of law suddenly becomes cancerously complicated, some fundamental conflict of interest, some basic tension between opposing values must be at the root of the problem. A good part of the American political public has been suspicious of strong, central authority. Power tends rather to be fragmented, balkanized, dispersed. This attitude underlies the theory of checks and balances, which left its mark on the law of evidence. The law of evidence, in civil-​law countries, is fairly simple and rational: judges are trusted to separate good evidence from bad. But American legal culture is more distrustful of judges, and, of course, there is also the jury. The jury has power to find the facts, and it has, in criminal cases, the final word on innocence or guilt. The jury is a powerful institution, and a precious one—​a constitutional right. Yet the system is curiously ambivalent toward the jury. Suspicious of jury power. Not sure juries can be trusted. Rules of evidence grew up as a kind of countervailing force. The jury only hears bits and pieces of the story told during a trial. It hears only what the law of evidence allows. The judge’s hands are also tied. If he lets in evidence that is legally flawed, he runs the risk that a higher court will reverse his decision. Judge and jury are constrained by strict, complicated rules of evidence. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 837

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the fragmentation/checks-and-balances distrust of authority that ch15 will treat as the key political lever — evidence law is one institutional expression of it. — connects to: Minority distrust of the legal system may shape their verdicts — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law: A Definitive Look at…, 914; Elite distrust of ordinary citizens shaped America’s representative form of governance. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 353

Broader Connections

• Minority distrust of the legal system may shape their verdicts #corroborates (0.72) — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 914
• Elite distrust of ordinary citizens shaped America’s representative form of governance. #expands (0.70) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 353