Concept of the reliability of forensic expert methodologies

the article examines the problem of the reliability of forensic expert methodologies as a key condition for the epistemological soundness and legitimacy of judicial decisions in contemporary justice. The purpose of the study is to provide a philosophical and legal and sociogumanitarian reconstruction of the concept of the reliability of a forensic expert methodology, revealing its multidimensional, socially and institutionally conditioned nature. The empirical and theoretical basis includes works in the philosophy of science and social epistemology, research in the sociology of science and technology, normative legal acts regulating forensic expert activity, and materials from judicial practice. Methodologically, the work relies on conceptual analysis, which makes it possible to distinguish the technical, epistemological, and socio and legal components of reliability; discourse analysis of expert reports, judicial acts, and procedural norms; hermeneutic interpretation of forensic expertise as a special social practice; and comparative analysis of approaches to assessing reliability in various legal systems (including the Daubert standards). As a result, it is argued that the traditional positivist understanding of reliability as a synonym for reproducibility and measurement accuracy is insufficient in the context of judicial proceedings, where expert knowledge is constructed and validated through professional paradigms, rituals of legitimation, linguistic strategies of persuasion, and institutional mechanisms of certification. The article demonstrates the influence of expert cognitive biases, contextual bias, commercialization of the expert services market, and the role of the expert community in consolidating or challenging the status of methodologies. In the discussion, the article substantiates the need to shift from dogmatic trust in expert opinions to their critical evaluation based on transparent criteria of scientific verification, procedures for minimizing human factors, and improving the methodological literacy of judges and attorneys, which is viewed as a condition for strengthening the legitimacy and humanistic character of justice.

forensic expertise, reliability of expert methodologies, philosophy of science, social epistemology, justice