Through the Distorted Lens - Constructing Truth and Reality With Legal Narratives

This monograph analyses controversial trial outcomes (both civil and criminal) through a post structural feminist lens of narrative creation. It considers how narratives are constructed in trials and how the admission or exclusion of evidence can lead to the formation of distorted narratives that produce flawed outcomes.
The book discusses contemporary evidential challenges surrounding the societal and legal framing of 'truth' within the Anglo-American trial process. It applies a post-structural feminist approach to examine how facts and rules are interpreted through the construction of legal stories. Chapters are organised to address key themes in high profile cases from around the globe. These include the cases of George Cardinal Pell, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Lawyer X, Brittany Higgins and Kathleen Folbigg. This book departs from previous publications, such as those with a traditional feminist perspective, in that it presents both sides of the distorted lens where a defendant is written into a story as both guilty and innocent. Its focus on cognitive and narrative processes provides insight into the role of narratives and evidence construction in the trial process, and how such processes are used by legal advocates.
This book would be of interest to scholars of legal psychology, criminology and socio-legal studies. It will also interest scholars and students of evidence law, especially those studying miscarriages of justice.

Sommario

Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
What Do We See and Hear?..........................................................
The Power of Narratives....................................................
Story Construction............................................................
The Legal Narrative................................................

CHAPTER 1
Construction of Language and Facts: Illusion or Reality in The Courtroom?
Evidentiary Terminology and Concepts.....................................................
Relevance ..........................................
Rules of Exclusions........................
The Presumption of Innocence.......................................
Burden of Proof ..................................................
Fact-finding and Proof..........................
R v Dawson................
Pell v The Queen................
Depp v Heard................


CHAPTER 2
Rituals, Practice and Procedure: The Truth, the Whole Truth, Anything but the Truth
Legal Rituals and Power.........................
Oaths and Affirmations.....................
Judge or Jury?..........................
The Church, its Rituals and the Sexual Complainant
Pell v R................................
Purpose of Appellate Courts...................
The Robes ....................................................
Courtroom Distancing......................
CHAPTER 3
Constructing the Defendant: The Three Faces of Eve

Mad, Bad & Sad.................................
Translation as a means to produce meaning......................
Women Who Kill............................................
Letby v Rex...........................
Motherhood............................................
An Emerging Linguistic Science on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.............
Baby Killer and Evidential Rules................................
a) United Kingdom
R v Trupti....................
R v Clark...................
R v Cannings.................
R v Anthony.................
b) Australia
R v Phillips.................
R v Mathey.................
R v Kathleen Folbigg..............
Constructing a mad, bad, mother
The Male Image..............
The Diaries...................
A Literal Translation.............

Male Child Killers..........
a) United States
Robert Leslie Robertson III v Texas...........
b) Australia
The Queen v Robert Farquharson............

Coincidence Reasoning........................................
Mothers and Mothering....................................................
Australia: R v Kathleen Folbigg
R v Phillips
UK: R v Clark
R v Cannings
R v Anthony
USA:
The Male Image..............................................................
Lost in Translation.........................................................
Narratives in Sexual Complainant Trials.................................


CHAPTER 4
Expanding the Intersectional Approach - from priest to movie stars
Intersectionality of the Defendant...................................
The Power of Questioning........................................................
The Sexual Complainant................................................
Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Ltd.....................
What is seen, heard or perceived?................
The Movie Star........................................
Johnny Depp v Amber Heard............................
Race
Flowers v States..........................
George Floyd.........
Changing Sides - The Duality of the Mask....................
Lawyer X................................
Transgender and Bias..........................................

Tickle v Giggle for Girls.............................................
Social Platforms and Media Narratives: A Picture Paints a Thousand Words.................................
CHAPTER 5
New Linguistic Interpretations and Narratives
Science and Knowledge.....................................................
Assumptions about the Unknown.........................................
Australia: R v Folbigg.....................
Human Error or Incompetence?.....................................................
Canada: Dr Charles Smith...............................................
Debunking the Junk Science............................................
Reconstruction Evidence - The Queen v Robert Farquharson.........
Memory Science - Pell v The Queen.......................
DNA Exonerations - Ronnie Wallace Long........................
Digital and Virtual Reality...................................
Court Recordings - Depp v Heard
The Podcast - R v Dawson
Newspapers - George Floyd
Television - Pell v The Queen
Text Messaging - Lucy Letby
From the Micro to the Macro...........................................................
Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organisation.................
George Floyd.............
Lehrmann v Network Ten Pty Ltd.....................
Johnny Depp v Amber Heard.................
CHAPTER
Developing A Different Dialogue

Understanding the Lens Through Which We See ...................................

The Requirement of Certainty......

The Process of Generalisations to the Particular......

Culturally Gendered Perceptions in Allocating Blame.......

Social Media is the New Communicator............
Jurors...........
The Power of the Post-Structural Feminist lens
BIBLIOGRAPHY......
INDEX ........................

Info autore

Fiona Hum is Senior Lecturer, Monash University, teaching Evidence for over twenty years. Fiona is a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Victoria, practising for many years prior to academia. Her research interests include evidence, wrongful convictions, discrimination and injustice issues.

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Fiona Hum, Fiona (Monash University) Hum
• Editore: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Copertina rigida
• Pubblicazione: 26.11.2025
• EAN: 9781032876320
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3287632-0
• Pagine: 264
• Serie: Routledge Frontiers of Criminal Justice
• Categorie: Scienze sociali, diritto, economia > Diritto > Diritto penale, diritto processuale penale, criminologia; Linguistics, LAW / Criminal Law / General, LAW / Criminal Procedure, PSYCHOLOGY / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition, PSYCHOLOGY / Forensic Psychology, LAW / Comparative, LAW / Evidence, Cognition & cognitive psychology, Criminal or forensic psychology, Legal aspects of criminology, Cognition and cognitive psychology, Social Law, Crime and criminology, Crime & criminology, Criminology: legal aspects, Social law and Medical law, Civil procedure: law of evidence