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IS-BILAT-Mobilitet Norge-USA /Canada

Communication in court - evidential value of oral and immediate statement in court

Awarded: NOK 0.14 mill.

There is a scarcity of literature and research in Norway focused on the arguments and effects of the principles of oral and immediate presentation in the court room. Oral and immediate presentation of proof constitutes central principles of procedure (Str prl. §§ 278, 296) and they are considered important in terms of the rule of law/legal security (EMK art. 6). At the same time their modes of operation are rarely questioned or studied in legal or socio-legal literature. Some of the reasons for this might be that the legal principles are easy to ascertain in a narrow sense, while the arguments for the same principles are based on assumptions about social mechanisms which are difficult to establish. An oral and immediate presentation is supposed to create t he most valid relationship between the presentation and evaluation of proof. The principles of oral as well as written presentation are based on language as a tool. However, the procedural system of oral and immediate presentation contributes to the broad ening of the concept of language. The advantage of the oral presentation is not only that it makes it easier to ask further questions during thetrial, but also that it provides a broader spectre of information, as Hov (1999) succinctly states in his textb ook on procedure; "it is said that paper does not blush". This project is meant to develop a more systematic understanding of how judges evaluate the plausibility of statements made by the parties in court as well as what strategies of presentation the va rious actors in court choose to use. The findings will be compared with the arguments that have been, and are, given in legal literature for the particular form of presentation which proof is given in court. The data consist of documents, observation of s elected court trials, interviews with various actors in court, and observation of the deliberation of the court in order to be able to grasp how judges actually evaluate evidence and proof

Funding scheme:

IS-BILAT-Mobilitet Norge-USA /Canada

Thematic Areas and Topics

No thematic area or topic related to the project