The presumption of innocence is unanimously considered a fundamental requirement for criminal justice. This notwithstanding, the meaning of the presumption is hotly disputed in the legal scholarship. This article contributes to the debate, advancing a novel theory of the meaning as well as of the justification of the presumption of innocence. It assesses critically the components of the presumption that are discussed and defended in the literature; and it shows that the meaning of the presumption should be unloaded of most of these components. The upshot is a markedly deflationary account, according to which the presumption of innocence consists exclusively of a rule on the allocation of the burden of proof. This rule is justified by appealing to the principle of inertia in argumentation, rather than – as it generally occurs – to the value of protecting the innocent from conviction.

中文翻译：

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无罪推定：通货紧缩账户

无罪推定被一致认为是刑事司法的基本要求。尽管如此，推定的含义在法律学界引起了激烈的争论。这篇文章为辩论做出了贡献，提出了一种关于无罪推定的意义和正当性的新理论。它批判性地评估了文献中讨论和捍卫的推定的组成部分；并且它表明推定的含义应该卸载大部分这些组件。结果是一个明显的通货紧缩的说法，根据这种说法，无罪推定完全由关于举证责任分配的规则组成。这条规则是通过在论证中诉诸惯性原则来证明的，