Dame Siobhan Keegan

Her subject will be evaluating the expert witness in the modern legal landscape.

Legal doctrine does not exist in isolation; issues of law always stem from issues of fact. However, the application of the law to any factual matrix is becoming ever complex. Small wonder, then, that the use of experts is now commonplace within adjudicative structures.

But how are judges aided by expert witnesses? Drawing on personal experience from across criminal, civil and family justice, the lecture will explore the relationship between the expert and the judge and examine the history and the philosophy of expert evidence as an aid to judicial decision-making.

The lecture casts a spotlight on the expert as the paradigmatic witness and will evaluate arguments both for and against the inclusion of expert witnesses within the legal framework. Looking to the future, the lecture will then explore emerging issues, including the advent of artificial intelligence, with the aim of addressing what role technology might play in discerning complex issues of fact and law.

Book a place here.