In this important book, a distinguished legal scholar examines how the legal culture and institutions in Anglo-American countries affect the way in which evidence is gathered, sifted, and presented to the courts. Mirjan Damaska focuses on the significance of the divided tribunal (the judge-jury division), the concentrated character of trials ("day-in-court" justice), and the prominent role of the parties in adjudication (the adversary system). Throughout he contrasts the Anglo-American system with continental, or civil law justice, where lay fact finders sit with professional judges in unified tribunals, proceedings are episodic rather than concentrated, and the parties have fewer responsibilities than in the common law tradition. Damaska describes the impact of the traditional institutional environment on the gathering and handling of evidence in common law jurisdictions and then explores the more recent transformations of this environment: trial by jury has dramatically declined, pretrial proceedings have greatly proliferated, the adversary, system shows signs of weakening in some types of cases. As a result, many rules and practices supporting the treatment of evidentiary material face the danger of becoming extinct. In addition, says Damaska, the increasing use of scientific methods of inquiry could place further strains on the use of traditional common law evidence. In the future we should expect greater variety in decision-making activity, with factual inquiries tailored to the specific type of proceeding and common law evidence restricted to a narrow sphere.

米爾建·R.達馬斯卡（Mirjan R.Damaska，也被譯為達瑪什卡），原前南斯拉夫人，現加入美國國籍。主要研究領域為刑法與刑事司法、證據學、社會主義法律製度以及比較法。

1955年畢業於前南斯拉夫薩格勒布大學(University of Za-gred)，獲法學學士學位。

1960年在盧布雅那大學(University of Ljubljana)獲法學博士學位。

1956-1957年在前南斯拉夫的審判法院和上訴法院擔任書記員。

1961-1962年在賓夕法尼亞大學(Uviversity of Pennsylvania)作"兩百周年校慶紀念訪問學者"(Bicentennial Fellow)。

1964年和1965年暑期任盧森堡國際比較法學院教授。

1966-1968年任賓夕法尼亞大學客座教授。

1968-1973年任薩格勒布大學教授，期間，於1970年齣任係主任。

1970-1971年任賓夕法尼亞大學教授。

1975-1982年為耶魯大學教授。

1982-1996年為耶魯大學福特基金講座教授。

1996年至今，任耶魯大學斯特林(Sterling)講座教授。