Computer Science and the Reference Manual for Scientific Evidence: Defining the Judge's Role as a Firewall
![handle is hein.journals/iprop14 and id is 25 raw text is: Computer Science and the Reference
Manual for Scientific Evidence: Defining
the Judge's Role as a Firewall
ATHENA JOHNS*
I. INTRODUCTION
The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (RMSE) was
developed to help judges understand and manage scientific evidence.
Two editions of the RMSE have been issued; the first edition was
published in 1994 and a second edition followed in 2000. In January
of 2009, the National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on the
Evaluation of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence published
a report to guide the development of a third edition of the RMSE.1
The committee based its report on information collected from various
sources, including representatives of the Federal Judicial Center,
users of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (RMSE),
federal judges, and evaluations from Brooklyn Law School's Science
for Judges program.2 The report recommended, among other things,
the addition of new topics, including a chapter on computer science.3
This paper considers the scope and depth of information that
would be valuable in a Computer Science Reference Guide in the
RMSE and discusses how such information would be most usefully
presented.
II. BACKGROUND OF THE REFERENCE MANUAL ON SCIENTIFIC
EVIDENCE
The RMSE was first published in 1994 in the wake of the
Supreme Court's 1993 decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which established a gatekeeping role for trial
* Ms. Johns holds a J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of
Law and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics from the
University of the Pacific. She is employed as a Patent Agent with
Kerr IP Group. She would like to thank Johnnemann Nordhagen and
professor Deborah Hussey Freeland.
1. COMMITTEE ON THE EVALUATION OF THE REFERENCE MANUAL ON SCIENTIFIC
EVIDENCE, NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL, EVALUATION OF THE REFERENCE MANUAL ON
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE (2009) [hereinafter EVALUATION OF THE REFERENCE MANUAL ON
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE].
2. Id. at 5.
3. Id. at 16.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/iprop14&div=6&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Computer Science and the Reference Manual for Scientific Evidence: Defining the Judge's Role as a Firewall
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