“the difficulties in determining questions of fact are greater and more common than those that occur in determining questions of law”

Reading the above sentence one might think it was written in the 1970’s or later when the New Evidence Scholarship started emerging. Actually, the quotation (referring to a statement by Justice Miller) is from A Treatise on Facts or the Weight and Value of Evidence by Charles C. Moore published in 1908! This textbook (described by William L. Twining in Rethinking Evidence: Exploratory Essays (1994)) is an incredible compilation of courts’ generalizations of facts and discussions on inference. (Its use was promoted in Handbook for Naval Officers: An Aid for Examinations for Promotion by Frederick Vallette McNair (1920).)

To illustrate the nature of the treatise, using an example from the “Improbable Testimony Contradicted by Circumstances” section, the following argument map depicts the court’s objection to the defendant’s  reasoning. Com v. Van Horn, 188 Pa. St. 143, 41 Atl. Rep. 469.

sdfs