Highlights of the Proposed Federal Rules of Evidence

To prepare a draft of proposed rules, the Chief Justice of the United States, as chairman of the Judicial Conference, appointed an Advisory Committee of fifteen members. Membership is comrpised of eight trial attorneys, the former chief of the criminal appeals unit of the Department of Justice, four federal judges, and two members of law school faculties. A third academician, Edward W. Cleary, who before teaching had 11 years of active practice, is Reporter for the Committee, furnishing many of the ideas, doing or directing most of the research, and usually doing the original drafting. After three and a half years of work, a Preliminary Draft of Proposed Rules of Evidence for the United States District Courts and Magistrates was printed and distributed for consideration by the bench and bar