Skip to main content

Volume 76, Number 6 Category

Introduction

Nov. 27, 2023—Edward K. Cheng | 76 Vand L. Rev. 1603 Prior to the eighteenth century, cartographers would often fill uncharted areas of maps with sea monsters, other artwork, or even rank speculation—a phenomenon labeled “horror vacui,” or fear of empty spaces. For example, in Paolo Forlani’s world map of 1565, a yet- to-be-discovered southern continent was...

Read more


Ignorance of the Rules of Omission: An Essay on Privilege Law

Nov. 27, 2023—Rebecca Wexler | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1609 Alton Logan spent twenty-six years in prison for a murder he did not commit, sleeping with a homemade metal shank under his pillow for protection. Meanwhile, attorney Dale Coventry kept the evidence that would ultimately exonerate Logan—another man’s confession—in a box beneath his bed. Coventry kept the...

Read more


How Machines Reveal the Gaps in Evidence Law

Nov. 27, 2023—Andrea Roth | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1631 This Symposium asks participants to reimagine the Federal Rules of Evidence on the fiftieth anniversary of their effective date. As part of that conversation, this short Essay argues that the Rules of Evidence contain critical gaps in terms of empowering litigants to meaningfully challenge the credibility of...

Read more


On Proving Mabrus and Zorgs

Nov. 27, 2023—Michael S. Pardo | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1653 An unfortunate disconnect exists in modern evidence scholarship. On one hand, a rich literature has explored the process of legal proof in general and legal standards of proof in particular. Call this the “macro level” of legal proof. On the other hand, a rich literature has...

Read more


“Pics or It Didn’t Happen” and “Show Me the Receipts”: A Folk Evidentiary Rule

Nov. 27, 2023—Timothy Lau | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1681 “Pics or It Didn’t Happen,” “Show Me the Receipts,” and related refrains are frequently encountered in online discussion threads today. They are typically invoked to demand corroboration in support of a claim or to declare from the outset that a claim is supported by some sort of...

Read more


One Size Does Not Fit All: Alternatives to the Federal Rules of Evidence

Nov. 27, 2023—Henry Zhuhao Wang | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1709 The Federal Rules of Evidence have been so successful that many people equate them to the whole field of evidence law. But this is a false equivalence. Our world is complicated, diversified, and dynamic. So, too, is evidence law, which is like a rainforest in which...

Read more


Binding Hercules: A Proposal for Bench Trials

Nov. 27, 2023—Maggie Wittlin | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1735 If you were a federal judge presiding over a bench trial, you probably would not want the Federal Rules of Evidence to apply to you. Sure, you might want to be insulated from privileged information. But you are, no doubt, capable of cool-headed, rational reasoning, and you...

Read more


The Superfluous Rules of Evidence

Nov. 27, 2023—Jeffrey Bellin | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1769 There are few American legal codifications as successful as the Federal Rules of Evidence. But this success masks the project’s uncertain beginnings. The drafters of the Federal Rules worried that lawmakers would not adopt the new rules and that judges would not follow them. As a result,...

Read more


Evidence-Based Hearsay

Nov. 27, 2023—Justin Sevier | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1799 The hearsay rule initially appears straightforward and sensible. It forbids witnesses from repeating secondhand, untested gossip in court, and who among us prefers to resolve legal disputes through untested gossip? Nonetheless, the rule’s unpopularity in the legal profession is well-known and far-reaching. It is almost cliché to...

Read more


A New Baseline for Character Evidence

Nov. 27, 2023—Julia Simon-Kerr | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1827 Perhaps no rules of evidence are as contested as the rules governing character evidence. To ward off the danger of a fact finder’s mistaking evidence of character for evidence of action, the rules exclude much contextual information about the people at the center of the proceeding. This...

Read more


Race, Gatekeeping, Magical Words, and the Rules of Evidence

Nov. 27, 2023—Bennett Capers | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1855 Although it might not be apparent from the Federal Rules of Evidence themselves, or the common law that preceded them, there is a long history in this country of tying evidence—what is deemed relevant, what is deemed trustworthy—to race. And increasingly, evidence scholars are excavating that history....

Read more


Models and Limits of Federal Rule of Evidence 609 Reform

Nov. 27, 2023—Anna Roberts | 76 Vand. L. Rev 1879 A Symposium focusing on Reimagining the Rules of Evidence at 50 makes one turn to the federal rule that governs one’s designated topic—prior conviction impeachment—and think about how that rule could be altered. Part I of this Article does just that, drawing inspiration from state models to...

Read more


Shifting the Male Gaze of Evidence

Nov. 27, 2023—Teneille R. Brown | 76 Vand. L. Rev. 1903 The Federal Rules of Evidence are a product of their time. They reflect not only the thinking of the 1970s when they were adopted but also the much older English common law on which many Rules were based. It should therefore come as no surprise that...

Read more