[Yoric]

Actually, very often, with a strongly, statically-typed language, in a well-designed API, it actually can.

Unfortunately, most people got a taste of static typing with Java and the initial language and library design were done in such a way that types were well, if not entirely useless, then certainly under-used. But if you look at many libraries for languages such as Rust, Scala, OCaml, Haskell, F#, ... (I haven't looked at Java in a while, but I don't hold high hopes on this specific front) you'll find many examples in which the API and the type system cooperate to guarantee that high-level protocols are enforced.

That being said, I absolutely agree that strong static typing does not mean that you don't need tests. As everything, if you want to be safe, you need a defense in depth, with good API design and many test layers.