Amsetrdam, 13 november 2008: Several years ago I met Inge van der Vlies while she was involved with helping musicians to safeguard their finances. In love with music and aware of the fragility of the
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Being a witness is a formal position in the process of law. To accept being a witness is a conscious choice to want to be present and testify. A witness has to be sworn in by taking an oath.
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Inge van der Vlies
Professor of Law
person
Prof. Dr. I.C. (Inge) van der Vlies is professor of Constitutional Law and Art & Law at the University of Amsterdam. She also has served as part time judge to the higher court in Amsterdam.
Physical presence is necessary when assessing the witness contribution to the search of the truth. The physical presence of the witness in court is crucial when taking the oath and testifying.
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As a judge one merely checks the attitude of a witness. The witness attitude makes the difference in establishing the witness trustworthiness, not the oath taken.
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In the witness reports text and numbers have dominant importance. Senses are usually distrusted (except for the smell of a dog for instance). Anything without human interference will be trusted more.
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Law and the court have a great influence in society. The ‘mighty frame’ of law is legitimized by social values and political choices. Even though Law tries to understand what happens, its
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Human beings negotiate between inner values and external values. Like the law, also system engineering creates a relation between systems and human beings. System engineers also function in
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experience:
Inge
Caroline
IngeCaroline
Full transcript including film fragments you find at: http://www.systemsdesign.tbm.tudelft.nl/witness
Hereunder the transcript in text.
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