Cultural Expertise and Litigation Patterns, Conflicts, Narratives [Hardcover]

Cultural Expertise and Litigationaddresses the role of social scientists as a source of expert evidence, and is a product of their experiences and observations of cases involving litigants of South Asian origin. What is meant in court by culture, custom and law ? How are these concepts understood by witnesses, advocates, judges and litigants? How far are cross-cultural understandings facilitated - or obscured - in the process? What strategies are adopted? And which ones turn out to be successful in court? How is cultural understanding  and misunderstanding  produced in these circumstances? And how, moreover, do the decisions in these cases not only reflect, but impact, upon the law and the legal procedure? Cultural Expertise and Litigationaddresses these questions, as it elicits the patterns, conflicts and narratives that characterize the legal role of social scientists in a variety of de facto plural settings  including immigration and asylum law, family law, citizenship law and criminal law.

Introduction, Livia Holden; Patterns: 1. South Asian Muslims and the Country expertise in the American Immigration Courts, Sylvia Vatuk; 2: When South Asians marry trans-jurisdictionally: Some Reflections on Immigration Cases by and Expert, Prakash Shah; 3: French Law Courts and South Asians Litigants ,V?ronique Bouillier; Part 2: Conflicts: 4: Being On and Being In: Exposure and Influence of Academic Experts in Contemporary Denmark, Stig Toft Madsen; 5: Witness Statements and Credibility Assessments in the British Asylum Courts, Anthony Good; 6: Honour Killing? Or Just Plain Homicide?, Roger Ballard; Part 3: Narratives; 7: Life and Law: Advocacy and Expert Witnessing in the UK, Werner Menski; 8. The Case of S.: Elaborating the Right Narrative to fit Normative/Political Expectations in Asylum Procedure in Italy, Tommaso Sbriccoli and Stefano Jacoviello; 9: Expert Report Writing: Professional Commitments alӴ