Research Project

Statistics in Court

Publications of popular science criticize spectacular misinterpretations of statistical evicdence in court decisions. But there is no scientific research about consequences for legal methodologies or juridical education. Usage of statistical terminology and statistical evidence raises and gets more common at German courts. Anyway, popular cases of misinterpretation of statistical evidence in research appear more anecdotical than scientific. This research projects covers wide spaces of statistic methods and fields of law, especially criminal law and public law.

Judges and lawyers have the challenging task to review statistic issues and consider them appropiate when reaching a verdict. This research project examines how lawyers can be supported with the review of statistic issues. Primary statistic-didactic questions are adressed by this research project, like:

• Which kind of quantitative methodological competences are helpful for lawyers?
• How can these competences be teached in legal education?
• Can the quality of jurisdiction improve with such educational offers?

For answering this questions an analysis of basic legal topics is required: How can argumentation based on quantitative issues get subordinated transparent and consistent in legal methodoly? How are random principles and sample results arranged with the postulation of individual cases?

This research project is a joint project of the University of Bremen and the University of Applied Sciences Kiel.