Teaching Guide Information

Presentation

Comparative Evidence Law will be mainly taught by Prof. Joan Picó i Junoy, Full Professor of Procedural Law of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) of Barcelona, Vice-President and General Secretary of the Ibero-American Institute of Procedural Law, and member of the International Association of Procedural Law (IAPL); and also mainly by Prof. Juan Antonio Andino López, Professor of Procedural Law of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) of Barcelona, Lawyer, Vice-President of the Association of Forensic and Evidence, and member of the International Association of Procedural Law (IAPL).

Associated skills

The aim of this course is to allow students to deal, identify and assess the rules regarding Evidence in a judicial civil proceedings in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and US.

Learning outcomes

The main idea behind the course is to provide the students of Pompeu Fabra University with the explanation and tools to compare Evidence in the US with Evidence in continental law, understanding by “continental law” the regulation of evidence in France, Germany, Italy, England and Wales, and Spain, with the aim of comparing common law with civil law.

        This course will focus on civil evidence for practical reasons: as future practice of the Law will likely involve students (future Lawyers) dealing with civil, rather than criminal, judicial proceedings abroad, with clients requiring legal assistance outside Spain for proceedings issued by creditors, customers and the like. It is understood that a judicial proceedings will be held by a local lawyer; however, a study of foreign legal proceedings could lead to a mutual cooperation and understanding in benefit of the client.

        To avoid a tedious mere description of the regulation in Europe and in the US, we will try to draw general categories of application of the Law from the continental law point of view, and later compare them with the legal system of evidence applied in the US. However, we also understand that students have the right to check legal sources taken into consideration to encourage them to prepare a paper that will have to be exposed and explained in class session. To fulfill this purpose, the concrete articles and rules in force in continental law regarding evidence will be distributed via Aula Global, having previously been translated into English. Moreover, from the US perspective we will only take into consideration the Federal Rules of Evidence, and not cover Evidence Rule specific to any US State, such as, California Evidence Code, for example. Although a general comment about legal sources in Europe and US will be highlighted.

Sustainable Development Goals

As mentioned, as lawyers, students will have to deal with world-wide business and maybe they will have to cooperate with foreign lawyers that will have to apply his/her own local laws.

Prerequisites

It is understood that students will have a procedural basis previously studied in their Universities, in order to participate in the debates and follow the sessions.

Contents

Our plan is to meet at class and proceed to explain the following issues:

        Session 1:           The right to evidence

        Session 2:           Judge vs. Jury

        Session 3:           Relevance and admissibility of evidence

        Session 4:           Disclosure and Discovery

        Session 5:           Expert evidence.

        Session 6:           Assessment of Evidence

        Session 7:           Witness psychology

        Session 8:           Legal privilege and correspondence between lawyers

        Session 9:           Judge and Evidence: a complex relationship

        Session 10:         The future of evidence law

Teaching Methods

Attendance

        Even though a research paper will have to be prepared by the students, class attendance is important and compulsory to generate in-class debates and legal discussions.

Evaluation

A research paper will have to be prepared by each student regarding any topic of Evidence Law but must involve a comparative issue. Further explanations regarding the research paper will be stated at class; however, please be advised that every statement of the paper must be based, supported and quoted on the law, on court cases and/or on the opinion of the scholars. Students must expose and explain their research papers in class, with a PowerPoint presentation, and we welcome the explanations that ease further debate and discussion. The assessment of the subject will be held to the following: 80% of the assessment will correspond to the research paper, and 20% of the assessment will correspond to the intervention of the students during the above-mentioned sessions.

Bibliography and information resources

We will distribute via Aula Global (1) a pdf with the content of the sessions, explained and detailed with references to legislation, court cases and the opinion of scholars, (2) a document with the main articles that rule Evidence in France, Germany, Italy and Spain (since the regulation of England and Wales can be easily found in internet, and we will provide the concrete link as to proceed), (3) a paper published at the International Journal of Evidence & Proof regarding the regulation of the correspondence between lawyers around the World. Thus, we will distribute the PowerPoint presentations via Aula Global after each class.

Información de la Guía Docente

Presentation

Comparative Evidence Law will be mainly taught by Prof. Joan Picó i Junoy, Full Professor of Procedural Law of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) of Barcelona, Vice-President and General Secretary of the Ibero-American Institute of Procedural Law, and member of the International Association of Procedural Law (IAPL); and also mainly by Prof. Juan Antonio Andino López, Professor of Procedural Law of Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) of Barcelona, Lawyer, Vice-President of the Association of Forensic and Evidence, and member of the International Association of Procedural Law (IAPL).

Associated skills

The aim of this course is to allow students to deal, identify and assess the rules regarding Evidence in a judicial civil proceedings in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and US.

Learning outcomes

The main idea behind the course is to provide the students of Pompeu Fabra University with the explanation and tools to compare Evidence in the US with Evidence in continental law, understanding by “continental law” the regulation of evidence in France, Germany, Italy, England and Wales, and Spain, with the aim of comparing common law with civil law.

        This course will focus on civil evidence for practical reasons: as future practice of the Law will likely involve students (future Lawyers) dealing with civil, rather than criminal, judicial proceedings abroad, with clients requiring legal assistance outside Spain for proceedings issued by creditors, customers and the like. It is understood that a judicial proceedings will be held by a local lawyer; however, a study of foreign legal proceedings could lead to a mutual cooperation and understanding in benefit of the client.

        To avoid a tedious mere description of the regulation in Europe and in the US, we will try to draw general categories of application of the Law from the continental law point of view, and later compare them with the legal system of evidence applied in the US. However, we also understand that students have the right to check legal sources taken into consideration to encourage them to prepare a paper that will have to be exposed and explained in class session. To fulfill this purpose, the concrete articles and rules in force in continental law regarding evidence will be distributed via Aula Global, having previously been translated into English. Moreover, from the US perspective we will only take into consideration the Federal Rules of Evidence, and not cover Evidence Rule specific to any US State, such as, California Evidence Code, for example. Although a general comment about legal sources in Europe and US will be highlighted.

Sustainable Development Goals

As mentioned, as lawyers, students will have to deal with world-wide business and maybe they will have to cooperate with foreign lawyers that will have to apply his/her own local laws.

Prerequisites

It is understood that students will have a procedural basis previously studied in their Universities, in order to participate in the debates and follow the sessions.

Contents

Our plan is to meet at class and proceed to explain the following issues:

        Session 1:           The right to evidence

        Session 2:           Judge vs. Jury

        Session 3:           Relevance and admissibility of evidence

        Session 4:           Disclosure and Discovery

        Session 5:           Expert evidence.

        Session 6:           Assessment of Evidence

        Session 7:           Witness psychology

        Session 8:           Legal privilege and correspondence between lawyers

        Session 9:           Judge and Evidence: a complex relationship

        Session 10:         The future of evidence law

Teaching Methods

Attendance

        Even though a research paper will have to be prepared by the students, class attendance is important and compulsory to generate in-class debates and legal discussions.

Evaluation

A research paper will have to be prepared by each student regarding any topic of Evidence Law but must involve a comparative issue. Further explanations regarding the research paper will be stated at class; however, please be advised that every statement of the paper must be based, supported and quoted on the law, on court cases and/or on the opinion of the scholars. Students must expose and explain their research papers in class, with a PowerPoint presentation, and we welcome the explanations that ease further debate and discussion. The assessment of the subject will be held to the following: 80% of the assessment will correspond to the research paper, and 20% of the assessment will correspond to the intervention of the students during the above-mentioned sessions.

Bibliography and information resources

We will distribute via Aula Global (1) a pdf with the content of the sessions, explained and detailed with references to legislation, court cases and the opinion of scholars, (2) a document with the main articles that rule Evidence in France, Germany, Italy and Spain (since the regulation of England and Wales can be easily found in internet, and we will provide the concrete link as to proceed), (3) a paper published at the International Journal of Evidence & Proof regarding the regulation of the correspondence between lawyers around the World. Thus, we will distribute the PowerPoint presentations via Aula Global after each class.