Abstract
This final chapter offers a conclusion to my research on forensic history which I have presented in this book. I reviewed Clio’s Modern Paradox in forensic history. Furthermore, I discussed the European and American experiences with historians serving as expert witnesses. From these theoretical and practical issues on historians working as expert judicial witnesses I have come to a number of conclusions on the controversial involvement of historians in tobacco litigation as expert judicial witnesses. To end, I discuss the courtroom as a performative and fact-making theatre for historians and I define my concept of the forensification of history.
Every once in a while, every once in a while, there’s a day with an absolute right and an absolute wrong, but those days almost always include body counts.
President Bartlett (Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See all the expert witness profiles online at http://www.thejudgeandthehistorian.ugent.be. Accessed 31 Oct 2014. Disclosure: website created and maintained by the author.
- 2.
See the statement by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy which I quoted at the beginning of part I of this book for an eloquent translation of this argument.
- 3.
It is the ambition of the author that the reader, by going through an overview filled with examples and practical experience-like descriptions, will reflect upon the question whether he or she would be willing to take the risk to defend his or her research on the stand as an expert witness.
- 4.
As George Orwell remarked: ‘History is a palimpsest’, it is up to historians to decide if they want to be there when a new version is inscribed on the parchment. I quoted Orwell at the beginning of the second part of the book.
- 5.
Butler, Joseph. 1740. The Analogy of Religion. Third edition. London: John & Paul Knapton.
- 6.
This is my definition of “the forensification of history”, based on the research presented in this book.
- 7.
Foucault, Michel. 1975. Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard.
- 8.
Fink, Carole. 2005. A New Historian? Contemporary European History 14, 147.
- 9.
Gilissen, John. 1960. La responsabilité civile et pénale de l’historien. Second Part. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 38, 1038–1039.
Bibliography
Butler, Joseph. 1740. The analogy of religion. London: John & Paul Knapton.
Carole, Fink. 2005. A new historian? Contemporary European History 14: 135–147.
Foucault, Michel. 1975. Surveiller et punir: naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard.
Gilissen, John. 1960. La responsabilité civile et pénale de l’historien. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 38: 1005–1039.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Delafontaine, R. (2015). Final Conclusion. In: Historians as Expert Judicial Witnesses in Tobacco Litigation. Studies in the History of Law and Justice, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14292-0_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14292-0_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-14291-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-14292-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawLaw and Criminology (R0)