I heard an interesting perspective from Alan Dershowitz (one of the prominent lawyers on the OJ Simpson case) that the trial system is fundamentally adversarial

I heard an interesting perspective from Alan Dershowitz (one of the prominent lawyers on the OJ Simpson case) that the trial system is fundamentally adversarial, and that accepting this quality is critical to its proper functioning. Basically within the scope of the legal rules the system is a prisoners dilemma with respect to honesty. If the defense is completely honest but the prosecution isn’t, then an innocent man may go to jail, and vice versa. The system has no way to enforce honesty, so it is set up in a way that honesty isn’t required. In a system where honesty isn’t required, being honest is basically illogical. If we want that to change we need a way to detect and enforce honesty in a trial system. I think that is an impossible goal.