Cultural Expertise and Litigation

<p><em>Cultural Expertise and Litigation</em> addresses the role of social scientists as a source of expert evidence and is a product of their experiences and observations of cases involving litigants of South Asian origin. What is meant in court by culture custom and law? How are these concepts understood by witnesses advocates judges and litigants? How far are cross-cultural understandings facilitated - or obscured - in the process? What strategies are adopted? And which ones turn out to be successful in court? How is cultural understanding – and misunderstanding – produced in these circumstances? And how moreover do the decisions in these cases not only reflect but impact upon the law and the legal procedure? <em>Cultural Expertise and Litigation</em> addresses these questions as it elicits the patterns conflicts and narratives that characterize the legal role of social scientists in a variety of de facto plural settings – including immigration and asylum law family law citizenship law and criminal law.</p>