A Doctrinal Analysis of Admissibility and Reliability Standards for Expert Opinion in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Pakistan

Abstract

The scientific or technical issues in contemporary judicial proceedings and the intellectual limitations of judges in scientific or technical matters necessitate the reception of expert opinion in such matters. The present study intended to examine the statutory provisions and judicial decisions concerning admissibility, relevancy and reliability of expert opinion in USA, UK and Pakistan. After doctrinal analysis, the present study found that the reliability of expert opinion is treated differently in these jurisdictions. It is a pre-condition for admissibility in USA, it affects both relevancy and probative weight in UK and it only affects probative weight in Pakistan. The analysis also indicated that there is no statutory legal framework in UK, whereas, USA framework provides guidance regarding both relevancy and reliability as compared to Pakistani framework which only guided about relevancy of expert opinion. The analysis also revealed that the courts in Pakistan treated expert opinion as corroboratory or explanatory evidence and focus on the integrity and procedural compliance in securing and submitting the samples for analysis. It is expected that the findings of the present study will be helpful for law makers to incorporate reliability standards in the Pakistani law of evidence to determine the probative weight of expert opinion.