Saks to join innocence research project in Norway

Michael Saks, ASU Regents’ Professor of Law and Psychology, will serve on a new Innocence Research Project at the University of Oslo in Norway. It is being established by Ståle Eskeland, a professor in the Department of Public and International Law, and the leading national commentator on criminal law in Norway.

Eskeland said the innocence movement in Norway began as a result of a Saks’ article, co-authored by former College of Law professor Jay Koehler, published in Science magazine in 2005. In “The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science,” the authors predicted a paradigm shift in the traditional forensic identification sciences in which untested assumptions and semi-informed guesswork are replaced by sound scientific foundation and justifiable protocols.

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.