Peter Tillers
Encyclopedia
Peter Tillers, American scholar of the law of evidence, was born in Riga
, Latvia, in 1943 and arrived in the United States in 1950. He was educated at Yale
(A.B., 1966) and Harvard Law School
(J.D., 1969, LL.M., 1972). He has been Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School, New York, since 1986.
Tillers is a reviser of John Henry Wigmore
's multi-volume treatise on the law of evidence and has published a variety of articles on evidence, inference, and investigation.
He is an editor of the Oxford journal Law, Probability and Risk. Tillers is former chairman and secretary of the Evidence Section of the Association of American Law Schools
. He was a Fellow of Law & Humanities at Harvard University
and a Senior Max Rheinstein Fellow at the University of Munich. He was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School
in the spring semester of 2002. Professor Tillers was legal adviser for the Latvian
mission to the United Nations
during the 48th Session of the General Assembly. He maintains a website with discussion of a wide range of general issues of evidence.
Tillers' scholarship focuses on evidential inference and fact investigation in legal settings. He maintains that multiple methods of marshaling and analyzing evidence are important in trials and in pretrial investigation and informal fact discovery (and in many other human domains). He maintains that inference networks offer a useful window into investigative discovery and proof at trial. But he believes that subjective, synthetic, and gestalt-like perspectives on evidence, inference, and proof are also essential. (This aspect of his thinking about evidential inference is almost undoubtedly attributable to his early interest in Immanuel Kant
, G.W.F. Hegel, and, in general, German Idealism
.)
Tillers recently came to the conclusion that real headway in the study of human inference (and of much else) can be made if and only if it is understood that the human animal is an intelligent organism that "thinks" both at a conscious and subconscious level; he now believes that Aristotle was fundamentally right in the way he, Aristotle, viewed (wo)man and his (her) place in the cosmos.
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia, in 1943 and arrived in the United States in 1950. He was educated at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
(A.B., 1966) and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
(J.D., 1969, LL.M., 1972). He has been Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School, New York, since 1986.
Tillers is a reviser of John Henry Wigmore
John Henry Wigmore
John Henry Wigmore was a U.S. jurist and expert in the law of evidence. After teaching law at Keio University in Tokyo , he was the dean of Northwestern Law School...
's multi-volume treatise on the law of evidence and has published a variety of articles on evidence, inference, and investigation.
He is an editor of the Oxford journal Law, Probability and Risk. Tillers is former chairman and secretary of the Evidence Section of the Association of American Law Schools
Association of American Law Schools
The Association of American Law Schools is a non-profit organization of 170 law schools in the United States. Another 25 schools are "non-member fee paid" schools, which are not members but choose to pay AALS dues. Its purpose is to improve the legal profession through the improvement of legal...
. He was a Fellow of Law & Humanities at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and a Senior Max Rheinstein Fellow at the University of Munich. He was a visiting professor at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
in the spring semester of 2002. Professor Tillers was legal adviser for the Latvian
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
mission to the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
during the 48th Session of the General Assembly. He maintains a website with discussion of a wide range of general issues of evidence.
Tillers' scholarship focuses on evidential inference and fact investigation in legal settings. He maintains that multiple methods of marshaling and analyzing evidence are important in trials and in pretrial investigation and informal fact discovery (and in many other human domains). He maintains that inference networks offer a useful window into investigative discovery and proof at trial. But he believes that subjective, synthetic, and gestalt-like perspectives on evidence, inference, and proof are also essential. (This aspect of his thinking about evidential inference is almost undoubtedly attributable to his early interest in Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
, G.W.F. Hegel, and, in general, German Idealism
German idealism
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with romanticism and the revolutionary politics of the Enlightenment...
.)
Tillers recently came to the conclusion that real headway in the study of human inference (and of much else) can be made if and only if it is understood that the human animal is an intelligent organism that "thinks" both at a conscious and subconscious level; he now believes that Aristotle was fundamentally right in the way he, Aristotle, viewed (wo)man and his (her) place in the cosmos.
Publications
- Editor, Evidence Module http://spindlelaw.com/branch/1328/Evidence of Spindle Law http://spindlelaw.com/about (draft released, Nov. 16, 2009)
- Crime, Procedure, and Evidence in a Comparative and International Context (2008) (co-edited with John Jackson & Maximo Langer)
- The Dynamics of Judicial Proof: Computation, Logic, and Common Sense (2002) (co-edited with Marilyn MacCrimmon)
- Probability and Inference in the Law of Evidence: The Uses and Limits of Bayesianism (1988) (co-edited with Eric Green), republished as L'Inferenza nel diritto probabilistica nel diritto delle prove: Usi e limiti del bayesianesimo (A. Mura trans., Giuffre editore, 2003)
- Vols. I & IA Wigmore on Evidence (P. Tillers rev. 1983)