Today’s Irish Independent carries a report (HT: my colleague Geraldine Ryan) on an conference in Dublin yesterday on the use of expert witnesses in trials. The article ends with some comments from a Supreme Court judge on the use of economists as experts in trials.
Meanwhile Supreme Court judge Fidelma Macken said economists proved to be the most frustrating experts to appear before a court as they were unable to clearly set out what they want to say.
"The bane of most judges' lives is to see a group of economists coming into court speaking the most unbelievably incomprehensible language known to mankind and it couldn't be just that all the judges are dumb," she said.
"There is this inescapable inability on the part of economists to explain what must be reasonably simple concepts in reasonably clear and simple terms."
Ouch! I wonder which economists have appeared in her court.
And a quick google search shows she has a Masters in International Economic Law from LSE. So if it's incomprehensible to her....
ReplyDeleteShe wouldn't be the first person with a degree in economics who wasn't able to put that knowledge into practice. Robert Mugabe has at least one Masters in Economics!
ReplyDelete