Michael Saks

An article by Regents’ Professor of Law and Psychology Michael Saks, “Convergent evolution in law and science: the structure of decision-making under uncertainty,” has been published in the June issue of Law, Probability & Risk.

The article explains the similarity between the formal structure of decision making under uncertainty that is used in legal trials and the structure of decision making under uncertainty that is used in hypothesis testing in empirical science.

The article, which Saks co-authored with Samantha Neufeld, a graduate teaching assistant in the ASU Department of Psychology, also reviews the historical origins of these decision-making schemes in both law and science. The authors find they evolved independent of each other to serve similar functions.

To read the article, click here.

Saks’ research focuses on empirical studies of the legal system, especially decision making, the behavior of the litigation system and the law’s use of science. A Faculty Fellow in the Center for Law, Science & Innovation, he is the fourth most-cited law-and-social-science scholar in the U.S., and has authored approximately 200 articles and books. Courses he has taught include criminal law, evidence, law and science, property and torts.