Misuses of science as a source of law
Science is not an entirely benevolent source of the law. The knowledge science provides often forces changes in the law against the resistance of tradition. Sometimes science is neglected, sometimes misunderstood, often misused.
There are many reasons for this. A legal system is a social institution. The actors on the legal scene have a common humanity. The inertia of tradition always weighs heavily. Characteristics such as those of selfishness, narcissism, sectionalism and parochialism are often found. Fear of the untried, devotion to special theories, lack of knowledge, misunderstandings, religion, dogma and ideologies are occasional obstacles to the use of science in the legal system.Sometimes ethical and moral values are also felt by some to be antithetical to science. Victor R. Fuchs (1996, p. 1) has stressed the role of value differences ‘as a major barrier to effective policy making’ in the field of health economics. Much modern science requires some mathematical skills to understand it. These skills do not appear to be common.
Not to be ignored are motives. Knowledge is like a knife. It can be used for good or evil. The list of reasons for science not being used or misused in legal systems could be lengthened. It need not be if it is recognized that human fallibilities must always be taken into account. Some misuse and neglect of science is inevitable in a democracy. The legislature is the place where the formal statement of the law is developed. The politicians who make up the legislature must, if they are to remain in politics, give most of their attention to what they think will get them re-elected. The knowledge science provides has to take second place to putative political realities.
This is especially the case when social issues are involved. So insecure is the scientific knowledge about them, for example the causes of unemployment, that differing views can almost always be found. Even in cases where there is little or no dispute among scientists, the uses of knowledge, as in the case of atomic energy, are almost always subject to debate. Sometimes political pressures, usually from situations that are perceived as emergencies, require the passage of laws without the benefit of any scientific input.