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COMMENTS REGARDING MODEL CODE OF EVIDENCE, BOOK 5 1 (1934-1941)

handle is hein.ali/alievidence0042 and id is 1 raw text is: Professor Willistonls monumental work on Contracts covers in some 5700pages all the substantive law and much of the procedure dealing with this most important and pervasive subject. Dean Wigmore has required some 4800 pages in five massive volumes followed by a supplement of 1250 pages tc expound the law of Evidence, a subject which has nothing to do with sub- stantive legal relations, but which deals with the means by which'facts in issue may be made known to the tribunal. A simple statement of this con- trast challenges attention. Why so elaborate a treatment of the devices for putting before court and jury the discoverable information tending to prove or disprove the contentions of the parties? If they really demand so much exposition and discussion, how can they be usable in ordinary litiga- tion? If they are usable and used in litigation, how can they need so elaborate and wordy an exegesis? The plain truth is that they are applied with more or less rigor in actual lawsuits, and that they are so puzzling and involved that even Wig- more's masterly treatise scarce suffices to make their use practicab e- ey still exe, to a large extent, the neglected product of time and accident. Any thorough examination will expose the haphazard character of the rules al- locating functions as between judge and jury, the intricacies of those governing presumptions, and the refinements and inconsistencies of those which privilege the concealment of truth, which disqualify intelligent wit- nesses, and which exclude relevant and material testimony of concededly competent witnesses. In short, the rules of evidence are now as far from performing their proper function in an efficient manner as were the rules governing the bill in equity when Judge Story said:

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