La prueba pericial en el proceso penal colombiano desde la dimensión social de la epistemología

Abstract

Departing from an understanding of Law as a social construction, as well as a collaborative endeavor in which different individuals produce knowledge and make decisions based, among other elements, on their commons sense of science, this article explores the social dimension of epistemology. From this perspective, and grounded on classic theorists such as Haack, the paper examines different aspects of the “expert evidence”, including the cientificity, as well as the lay judge’s epistemic competence to assess expert’s knowledge. In the same manner, this report also explores the expert evidence as an assistant to the judge, and the consequences thereof for legal rules such as the prohibition of the judge’s private knowledge and the use of human knowledgegeneralizations. Finally, drawing on non-classical authors such as Shapin or Kitcher, and based on social practices, the paper calls into question the adversarialism being transplanted in Colombia, and the level of inequality generated for the defense.