ABSTRACT
The courtroom is an arena where reasoning has a tremendous impact on people's lives. Defendants may walk away with charges against them dismissed, or they may lose their freedom—and in some instances their lives—on the basis of judges’ and jurors’ reasoning. What happens in court depends on the judgments that some people make about others and their alleged activities, yet courtroom conditions are less than optimal for processing information. Each judgment must be made from incomplete information in a climate of uncertainty and ambiguity and must lead to a verdict whose veracity cannot be put to an incontrovertible test. This takes place in a public arena of adversarial persuasion governed by rules of procedure about how material may be gathered and tested, while evidence is processed with the expectation that all participants will attempt to influence the judgmentmaker.
