Passage - General Questions

[Administrator]

Passage Discussion

VIEWSTAMP Analysis:

Viewpoints: The author presents the following perspectives in this passage: that of the old legal system, that of Bentham, that of the author, and finally the modern view on the admissibility of evidence.

The Structure of this passage is as follows:

• Paragraph One: In the first paragraph, the author introduces the “bizarre” laws of evidence that existed in the late 1700’s: parties to a case—even defendants—were barred from testifying when Bentham entered the picture.
  
  Paragraph Two: The purpose of the second paragraph is to point out that the above referenced rules were typical of a system which excluded much relevant evidence, including hearsay evidence from someone who is no longer living.
  
  Paragraph Three: Here the author introduces Bentham’s response to the evidentiary rules that had made bringing out the truth quite difficult. Lawyers had vested interests and were overly swayed by tradition. Bentham reacted with the opposite approach to evidence: admit nearly everything (other than some very specific exceptions: prohibitive expense, confessional, and “a few other instances.”)
  
  Paragraph Four: In this paragraph, since the perspective is attributed to no one else, we can attribute it to the author, who points to some weaknesses in Bentham’s approach: some kinds of evidence are inherently unreliable or misleading, and the narrow exception of the catholic confessional opens the door to other conversations which might requires such protection in the name of the greater good.
  
  Paragraph Five: The author uses the final paragraph to present the modern approach to evidence law: “relevant evidence should be admitted unless there are clear grounds of policy for excluding it.” This approach, the author points out, provides more exclusions than Bentham preferred, but that it shares the main thrust of Bentham’s nonexclusion principle.

The Main Point of the passage is to present the old approach to evidence, excluding much, and Bentham’s approach, excluding almost no evidence, and finally the modern approach, which is a less extreme version (though sharing the same basic thrust) of Bentham’s nonexclusion principle.

[lanereuden]

How come not all reading comp passage have this passage—general questions section?

[Stephanie Oswalt]

Hi Lane!

Thanks for the post! We offer many explanations for LSAT questions on our forum. We are working on getting all of the explanations available, but this is an incredibly time-consuming process, so we're not there just yet. In the meantime, we encourage you to show how you approached a question, and to ask questions!

Thanks!