Criminal Process faced with the Challenges of Scientific and Technological Development

Abstract

This work examines some current-time challenges to the basic principles concerning fact-finding in criminal proceedings. The starting point of the analysis is that, no matter the theoretical model adopted in a criminal justice system, the essence of fair trial is that each party shall enjoy an effective chance to tell its story and to challenge the story and the theses proposed by the counterparts. This approach to criminal proceedings, that we can synthetically define as inspired by the art of doubt, seems nowadays under attack, because of the recent developments at the scientific and technological levels, and of their implication to fact-finding models at trial. In particular, in a cultural and legal framework showing a decreasing sensitivity to the rights of the defence, the “doubt-based” or Socratic traditional approach seems defied by three factors: the digital revolution; the raise and spreading use of neurosciences; and the increasing employment of artificial intelligence in adjudicating cases. The thesis here submitted is that the traditional bases of fact-finding at trial can endure even against these challenges, as far as lawyers and scholars will be able to keep a critical and doubt-oriented approach to the new scientific and digital evidentiary instruments made available by the current development of technology.