Evidence and Proof, Economics Of

In the Anglo-American common law legal system, the law of evidence regulates the fact-finding phase of the [Page 525]adjudication process, primarily by specifying the content and form of information that a litigant (or anyone else, including a judge) may present to factual decision makers, which is referred to as the “admissibility” question. There is no law of “proof” per se, but there are doctrines that specify burdens of proof in both of two senses. First, the burden of production identifies the party required to come forward with evidence on a particular fact in dispute. Second, the burden of persuasion is the degree of certainty by which the finder of fact must decide, ranging from a simple preponderance of evidence through various intermediate levels to “beyond ...