Verosimilitud vs. prueba (Lecciones de una historia judicial italiana) / Verisimilitude vs proof (lessons from an Italian legal narrative)

Abstract

The aim in a trial is trying to reconstruct a past event. There are two main models of this task: the atomist and the holist. The supporters of the atomist model focuses on the correspondence between narrative and real facts; those of the holist model look for the internal coherence of the narrative itself. The former try to construe a true story, the latter a good story. For the former, the main concern is a careful respect for the evidence; the latter take more in account the narrative’s verisimilitude. This paper examines a real case using and contrasting both models.

Keywords: Evidence, indicia, proof, reasonable doubt, verisimilitude.