19/02/2024
We are excited to announce our last parallel speaker: Mr. Richard Gerding!
Richard Gerding is currently a senior lecturer at the criminal department in the faculty of law of the University of Amsterdam. Before, he was a high court judge in Amsterdam and public prosecutor in Rotterdam. He published on subjects relating to fraud against the interest of the European Union.
Mr. Richard Gerding will talk about the possibilities and pitfalls of criminal law science. In his lecture he will focus on the report of evidence. Is there enough evidence to incriminate someone? Those who watch the show CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) may get the impression that gathering scientific evidence suffices to solve every possible crime. In real life, solving crimes and finding suspects isn’t that easy. Moreover, if a case is brought to court, the judge must decide whether or not there is enough evidence to convict the suspect. When interpreting scientific evidence, the judge has to rely on experts. The Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), together with the police, plays a very important role in gathering and interpreting forensic evidence. It has experts in almost every field e.g. biology (DNA), toxicology (Drugs) and computer science (breaking the codes of crypto phones). Therefore, the reports of the NFI are widely used in the day-to-day routine of the Netherlands criminal court. At the same time the judge must remain critical in interpreting the evidence that is brought before him. During his lecture he will provide challenges with concrete real-life examples for the audience and invite the students to give their decision as if they were the judge.
We want to thank for sponsoring the congres this year.
