UCL in the News: John Henry Wigmore Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Law of Evidence and the Process of Proof

On January 5, 2008, the Evidence Section of the Association of American Law Schools awarded two now-legendary men - William L. Twining [UCL Laws] and Judge Jack B. Weinstein - the inaugural John Henry Wigmore Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Law of Evidence and the Process of Proof.

I made the following comments about Professor Twining: …

"In the 1970s and 1980s fresh faces emerged who changed the face of evidence scholarship here and elsewhere in the world. …

"Twining cannot be given sole credit for the broadening and the deepening of evidence scholarship that we have witnessed during the last three-and-one-half decades. …

"Be that as it may, Twining has been an important player in the transformation of evidence scholarship. …

"Twining has been working at this evidence business for a very long time, and not only does he have legions of former students & admiring ex-colleagues all over the world, he is also one of the prime movers behind the sprawling, interdisciplinary, and exciting research program and community at UCL that goes by the name Enquiry, Evidence, and Facts. …

"Twining taught that it is possible to teach budding lawyers and judges useful things about the process of inference and proof - that although assessment of evidence is at least as much art as science - in his view, more art than science - there is reason to think that law teachers can teach their students something useful and important about the arduous and difficult activity of factual inference and factual proof. …

"He also teaches that even when lawyers, judges, and fact finders work conscientiously and hard, there is no guarantee of infallibility about facts. Twining believes that an additional reason for getting law students to study evidence, inference, and proof is to get them to understand the many ways in which inference and proof can go wrong." …