Forensic epistemology
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Epistemological Jurisprudence or forensic epistemology is the application of theory of knowledge to legal problems at international level.
Concerns
It concerns sources, nature, and limits of knowledge about legal issues raised in educational settings where learners tend to coordinate the theory of knowledge with developing scientific thought for determining causes of serious global crimes.It ranges from ancient concepts of justice such as Egyptian Ma'at, rationalism of a philosopher with legal background G. W. Leibniz, accepting the value of data and ideas from experience to a cultural specialist in anthropology Odhiambo Siangla, who first coined the term forensic epistemology, questioning the motives of Western anthropologists in educating researchers about Africa.
Knowledge history on sources of conflicts
The idea of cultural relation and theory of knowledge across the globe stemmed from either liberal integration theory or socialist industrialization theory. It assumed withering away of ethnic groups and native identities in the 19th and 20th centuries.But the withering was not realized as assumed. Instead, there grew more awareness of ethnic identities that would become a major cause of regional conflicts, raising concerns over acquisition and dissemination of knowledge about international law.
Many anthropologists in their scholarships at the period expanded European colonialism by providing ethnographic monographs detailing lifestyles of various communities out of Europe thus providing basis on which theoretical issues about conflicts were debated.
The application of epistemology to international legal problems apparently became more methodical.
Methods of instruction
Legal pedagogy, like ethnography always influences how a society teaches law, thinks about politics, and theorizes on cohesion and harmony among ethnic communities being instructed.Take for example, the European slavery on people of African descent, an activity that was legalized by legislation and recognized by U.S. Constitution. Here we find that the teachings of law and legal subjects for many years in America were ethnically based. European Americans were institutionally instructed that American laws were to protect European people in the land and so the law arbitrated between European quarrelling parties but ignored legal concerns and trainings of Asians, Africans and the Native Americans in the academy.
The methods of teaching law directly impacted education and role of lawyers which is yet to be fully remedied in order to accommodate the learning needs of all Americans. Such an ethnic view driving educational activity in America or its approach employed anywhere else could be considered a questionable epistemic activity to be examined on a global scale.
Academic research and negotiation techniques or even document drafting have not only been taught to legal students but they have been taught to nearly all students in the university. In effect, forensic epistemology lands scholars into a global arena when it comes to duties of educating methods of instruction. It applies to instruction and supervision of many fields of study and thus clarifies how students should understand concepts such as legal rights and legal obligations by addressing a wider view of instructional approaches that may relate to the question of ethics,morality and human rights.
Ethnicity and crime fighting
The idea of nationality, progress and rule of law discussed under gatherings of Civilized World, implies the existence of another world, a Primitive World.In 1997, Odhiambo Siangla, in Afro-American Museum of Culture showed his famous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Liquid_Fire.jpg Liquid fire]], oil on board, in which he explained how jet fuel could melt steal, and in the process could cause serious structural damage to pieces of architecture.
Dr Siangla’s art and aesthetics were not new, at least in the understanding and application of liquid fire in modern military terms, dating back to World War II. But when the Western critics of art overlooked this revisited knowledge of extreme temperature condition in art exhibition from the African thinker, branding it a minor and primitive fantasy in an ethnic gallery, the critics starved the intelligent minds hence adumbrated modes of guiding the application of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napalm liquid fire]]. The exhibition director of the museum simply put it, “I don’t understanding why contemporary critiques ignore African fine art”.
In certain chaotic dynamics, world events are guided by many parameters from which they are rendered random and uncertain and may not easily be predicted.
It is in forensic epistemology where theory of knowledge and international law interlock and it is in it where the world gains order and different societies acquire harmony.
Meaning of International Law
There are two sectors of international law the understanding of which involves this concept of forensic epistemology. These sectors are private international law and public international law.Given that individuals and associations found in different states enter contractual agreements, there have been written world laws to guide the private sectors or to guide the individual contractors. International criminals face these laws.
Public sectors, however, have utilized the understanding of rules that regulate the behaviors of states. These rules cover the use of nuclear weapons, terrorism and world pollution as examples.
The understanding of international rules with the intention of creating co-operation among quarreling sectors or states is the business of epistemic forensics that Odhiambo Siangla calls forensic epistemology.
Criticism
Critics say that forensic epistemology is nothing other than a concept being disseminated by fine artists and philosophers of art, lawyers and legal scholars from different states. It is promoted by people who attempt to understand issues of international relations. These people deal with cases of art in the international economy, international political economy, strategic studies as well as the studies of international organizations to expose nations or individuals who violate laws of the world.
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