Herdy, Rachel

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Viña del Mar campus, Chile. Herdy has a bachelor's degree (2003) and master's degree (2006) in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro and a doctorate (2011) in Sociology from the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

She was a visiting researcher at the University of Miami School of Law (under the direction of Susan Haack) and at the Argumentation Laboratory of the Philosophy Institute of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. From 2011 to 2022, she was a full-time professor at the Department of Legal Theory of the National Law School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Her research interests are Philosophy of Law, Social Epistemology, Legal Epistemology and Evidence Law.

Her publications include the following articles and book chapters: Expert evidence, preemptive reasoning, and the rationality of deference (2024); Existen injusticias hermenéuticas en el derecho? (2023); Condenados pela ciência: a confiabilidade das provas periciais (2021); Formas de acudir a los expertos en las cortes constitucionales: una reflexión a partir de la experiencia de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (2021); Ni educación, ni deferencia ciega: hacia un modelo crítico para la valoración de la prueba pericial (2020); Appeals to Expert Opinions in High Courts (2019); As inferências probatórias: compromissos epistêmicos, normativos e interpretativos (2019); Uma década de audiencias públicas no Supremo Tribunal Federal (2018); The Epistemic Dependence of Judicial Decision-Makers (2016); and Dependencia epistémica, anti-individualismo y autoridad en el derecho (2014). She is the translator of Susan Haack's Manifesto de uma moderada apaixonada: ensaios contra a moda irracionalista (2011). She has also published several essays in Brazilian legal journals.

She is currently directing the project “Quando a justica ignora a ciencia” (with the support from the Instituto Serrapilheira in Brazil), and is a member of the Red Latinoamericana de Epistemología Jurídica.