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58 Colum. L. Rev. 435 (1958)
Two Decades of the Federal Civil Rules

handle is hein.journals/clr58 and id is 481 raw text is: COLUMBIA LAW REVIEW Vol. 58 APRIL, 1958 No. 4 THE FEDERAL RULES OF CIVIL PROCEDUREt 1938-1958 TWO DECADES OF THE FEDERAL CIVIL RULES CHARLES E. CLARK* Two decades of lively experience under the federal civil rules provide adequate perspective for both survey and prognosis. The rules have been thoroughly tried and not found wanting;' and the trend of state adoption is proceeding apace. Now a quarter of the states are followers; half have adopted substantial portions of the federal system;'and hardly a local jurisdiction remains unaffected. North Dakota, Wyoming, and Idaho are the most recent converts, with Alabama nearing decision and New York more doubtful, and with promising developments in Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, and Vermont, California, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and West Virginia, among others.2 Finally, events of the moment virtually * Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. Former dean, Yale Law School. Reporter to the Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Rules for Civil Procedure, 1935-1956. At the request of the author, citations in this article conform to his own style and not necessarily to A Uniform System of Citations (9th ed. 1955). 1. This is Judge Chesnut's statement: I have yet to note an instance in which they. have been found lacking. Chesnut, Improvements in Judicial Procedure, 17 CONN. B.J. 238, 243 (1943). Among many similar encomia the following may be noted: VANDERBILT,, IMPROVING THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTIcE-TWO DECADES OF DEVELOPMENT 90-91, (1957); VANDERBILT, THE CHALLENGE OF LAW REFORM 57-58 (1955); Burton, Judging Is also Administration: An Appreciation of Constructive Leadership, 33 A.B.A.J. 1099, 1166, 1167 (1947); Herrmann, The New Rules of Procedure in Delaware, 18 F.R.D. 327, 346; Holtzoff, A Judge Looks at the Rules After Ftfteen Years of Use, 15 F.R.D. 155, 174; Holtzoff, Origin and Sources of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 30 N.Y.U.L. REV. 1057, 1058 (1955); Rives, A Court of Appeals Judge on the Federal Rules, 17 ALA. LAw. 324 (1956). 2. The following jurisdictions have adopted the federal civil rules fully: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware (separately for the unmerged courts of law and courts of chancery), Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, Utah, and Wyoming. Substantial portions, such as the dis- covery provisions, the joinder provisions, and so on, have been adopted in Alabama, Cali- fornia, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington. Individual rules, notably Rule 16, have been adopted in other states. The Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure (1957), proposed by the Commission for Judicial Reform, closely follow the federal rules, but have not yet been adopted by the state legislature. In Nebraska the rules as adopted were rejected and the rule-making act repealed by the legislature in 1943, as stated in note 59 infra. Among interesting accounts of local adopticns of the federal rules the following may be cited: Allen, The New Rules in Arizona, 16 F.R.D. 183; Keely, How Colorado Conformed State to Federal Civil Procedure, 16 F.R.D. 291; Herrmann, supra note 1; Sims, Recent Civil Procedural Reform in Kentucky, 16 F.R.D. 397; Robertson, New Mexico Rules of Civil

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