The Virtue of Process: Finding the Legitimacy of Judicial Fact-finding in Personal Injury Litigation by Nayha Jayant Acharya Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia May 2017 © Copyright by Nayha Jayant Acharya, 2017 For Kaki and Murf, two of my most favourites ii Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements ix ……………………………………………………………………………………………………... Chapter 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 A. The Concerns ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 B. The Approach ........................................................................................................................................................ 7 C. The Map ................................................................................................................................................................... 8 D. Contributions ..................................................................................................................................................... 18 E. Preliminary Challenges and Limitations ................................................................................................. 20 Chapter 2. Setting the Stage for Procedural Legitimacy ........................................................ 22 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 22 Part 1. Understanding Adjudicative Fact-Finding .................................................................................... 25 A. Introducing the Fact-Finding Tension ................................................................................................ 25 B. Valid Fact-Finding: Resolving the Fact-Finding Tension through Process .......................... 30 Part 2. Legal validity and legitimacy: my place among major positivist and non-positivist perspectives ............................................................................................................................................................. 40 Part 3. Situating the Argument Among Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Approaches .... 74 Conclusion and Next Steps ................................................................................................................................. 94 Chapter 3. The Jurisprudential Inquiry into Law and Legitimacy ...................................... 96 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 96 iii Part 1. The Positivist Approach to Legal Validity: Hart and Raz ........................................................ 98 A. The Legal Theory of H.L.A Hart ............................................................................................................. 98 i. Legal Validity and its Implications ................................................................................................... 98 B. The Legal Theory of Joseph Raz ......................................................................................................... 113 i. Legal Validity and its Implications ................................................................................................ 113 C. Merging Description with Normativity, Validity with Legitimacy ....................................... 124 Part 2: Proceduralist Paradigms: Lon Fuller and Jurgen Habermas ............................................. 129 A. The Legal Theory of Lon Fuller ........................................................................................................... 130 i. Why Law needs Legitimacy .............................................................................................................. 130 ....................... 134 B. Theii. Locating Legal Theory Legitimacy of Jurgen in Fullers Habermas Account: ............................................................................................ The )nternal Morality of Law 150 i. Why Law Needs Legitimacy ............................................................................................................. 150 ii. Loc ........................ 152 C. Summingating up Legitimacy Fuller and in Habermas (abermass and Account: their Relation The Discourse to Hart and Principle Raz ............................. 163 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 165 Chapter 4. Procedural Legitimacy in Adjudicative Fact-Finding ...................................... 168 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 168 Part 1: Fuller and Habermas on Adjudication ........................................................................................ 170 A. Lon Fuller on Adjudication: Participation, Rationality, and Agency ................................... 170 B. Habermas on Adjudication: Rational Discourse .......................................................................... 177 C. Summing Up Fuller and Habermas on Adjudication .................................................................. 185 Part 2. Delineating Legitimate Adjudicative Fact-Finding ................................................................. 187 A. Factual Reliability ..................................................................................................................................... 188 iv i. Accuracy Matters: The Importance of Accuracy Expressed as Reliability .................... 188 ii. How should reliability be reflected in the adjudicative process? .................................... 195 iii. Maintaining Reliability alongside Fair Management of Risk of Error .......................... 204 iv. The Rationality Requirement ........................................................................................................ 210 B. The Value of Participation Rights ...................................................................................................... 218 Summing Up: The Procedural Legitimacy Framework ....................................................................... 226 Chapter 5. Implications of Procedural Legitimacy on Scientific Evidence and Judicial Fact-Finding .......................................................................................................................................... 230 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 230 Part 1: Introducing the Concerns and the Procedural Legitimacy Frame ................................... 232 A. The Concerns around Scientific Evidence ...................................................................................... 232 B. Introducing the Procedural Legitimacy Frame and Its Importance .................................... 241 Part 2: Science and Law in Terms of Procedural Legitimacy ........................................................... 245 A. Admissibility of Scientific Expert Evidence ................................................................................... 245 i. Mohan Admissibility Analysis: Relevance, Necessity, Expert Qualification ................. 245 ii. Reliability in Admissibility Analysis: Highlights from Canadian Judiciary .................. 252 iii. Reliability Criteria: Academic Contributions and Procedural Legitimacy Concerns .......................................................................................................................................................................... 256 B. Procedural Legitimacy and Adversarial or Alternative Processes ..................................... 265 i. Adversarial Fact-Finding and Procedural Legitimacy ........................................................... 268 ii. Assessing Non-Adversarial Presentation of Scientific Evidence ..................................... 273 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................................. 286 v Chapter 6. Exploring Causal Indeterminacy Through Procedural Legitimacy: The Medical Negligence Challenge ........................................................................................................ 288 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 288 Part 1. Introducing Causal Indeterminacy and the Procedural Legitimacy Frame ................. 291 Part 2. Loss of Chance: The Perceptions of Unfairness and Procedural Legitimacy ............... 303 A. Loss of Chance Explained ...................................................................................................................... 304 ............................. 311 C.B. ProceduralAccommodating Legitimacy Causal