Of Doubt and Proof

All institutions concerned with the process of judging are necessarily concerned with the question of doubt. The contributors to this book broaden the theoretical understandings of the social role of doubt both in social science and in law. By putting ritual and judicial settings into comparative perspective as well as legal processes in France, the UK, India, Denmark and Ghana, they offer a comprehensive and novel perspective on techniques for casting and dispelling doubt, and the roles these play in achieving verdicts or decisions that appear both valid and just.