Erfahrungssätze im Strafprozess

The practical difficulty of fact-finding by the trial judge arises from the nature of criminal proceedings: the judge has to assess past events that he did not perceive directly through his senses. He is therefore dependent on empirical judgements that determine whether events are probable. The author highlights the poorly structured categorization and deficient terminology of such empirical judgements in criminal proceedings. Taking into account the epistemological and procedural limits in truth-finding, she develops criteria for assessing their validity as sell as a generally applicable definition. Finally, she analyses the extent to which there may be a error of law when dealing with empirical judgements.