The Second Circuit Review--1975-76 Term: Courts-- Evidence \u26 Procedure: Commentary: The Second Circuit and the Federal Rules of Evidence

The most significant development in federal trial procedure in recent years has been the enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence, effective July 1, 1975. In the intervening two years since the Rules became effective, the courts of the Second Circuit have bad occasion to make several illuminating applications of and references to them. An examination of some of these decisions provides insight into the kinds of questions that are coming up not only in the Second Circuit, but around the country, and the kinds of answers that are being given. It is not the bizarre or unusual case that will tell us whether and how the rules are working, but the mine-run of cases; and this circuit provides a good sampling. The following discussion will also include a few decisions which, although not from the Second Circuit, are sufficiently next door to be of interest to the Second Circuit lawyer