There are many treatises that analyze federal courts' procedural rules. Below are descriptions of a few of the most authoritative treatises.
Federal Practice and Procedure, 3d ed. (Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller)
[KF9619 .W7 1980]
Often referred to simply as "Wright and Miller," this preeminent treatise has more than 30 volumes and provides analysis of the Federal Rules of Appellate, Civil, and Criminal Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the statutes governing jurisdiction in federal courts. Volumes are updated with pocket parts.
The set is arranged basically in rule number order, although its section numbers do not correspond to rule numbers. For example, §§ 1011-1030 of Wright and Miller discuss F.R.C.P. 1, while §§ 1041-1045 discuss F.R.C.P. 2. (There are no §§ 1031-1044.)
For each rule, Wright and Miller provides the rule text, advisory committee notes, and detailed commentary on the rule. The commentary is well footnoted with references to case law. There is a single subject index covering all volumes and rule sets. The index volume also provides a table that allows the user to look up a rule number and get references to the Wright and Miller section numbers where it is discussed.
Moore's Federal Practice, 3d ed.
[KF8820.A313 M63 1997; Civil Volumes (Civil Index), Criminal Volumes]
Moore's Federal Practice is a 29 volume loose-leaf treatise that analyzes the Federal Rules of Appellate, Civil, and Criminal Procedure, as well as the Rules of the U.S. Supreme Court, local rules of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the Supplemental Rules for Admiralty and Maritime Claims. The first part of the set is arranged in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure rule number order, with chapter and section numbers corresponding to actual F.R.C.P rule numbers. Volumes on other sets of court rules are also arranged in rule order, however, the chapter and section numbers do not correspond to the actual rule numbers. For each rule, Moore's provides the text of the rule and a detailed explanation of the rule. The explanations are heavily footnoted with extensive references to case law. Each chapter includes a "Historical Appendix" that provides the text of advisory committee notes and shows historical amendments to the rule, with dates.
Weinsten's Federal Evidence, 2d ed.
[Print: KF8935 .W39]
Weinstein's Federal Evidence is a six volume loose-leaf treatise that analyzes the Federal Rules of Evidence. The set is arranged in rule number order, and its chapter and section numbers correspond to actual F.R.E. rule numbers. For example, all of the sections in chapter 101 discuss F.R.E. 101. For each rule, Weinstein‰s provides the text of the rule and a detailed explanation of the rule. The explanations are heavily footnoted with extensive references to case law. Each chapter includes "Historical Appendix" that provides the text of advisory committee notes and shows historical amendments to the rule, with dates. These appendixes also indicate any congressional action taken on the draft rules as they were proposed by the Judicial Conference of the United States. Volume 6 includes a "Table of State and Military Adaptations of Federal Rules of Evidence," which identifies state evidence rules identical or similar to each of the F.R.E.
Orfield's Criminal Procedure Under the Federal Rules, 2d ed.
[Print: KF9619 .O74 1985]
Consists of seven volumes analyzing the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. The set is arranged in rule number order, and its section numbers correspond to the actual rule numbers. For example, §§ 44:1 through 44:27 all discuss F.R.Cr.P. 44. Orfield‰s reprints the text of each rule. It also provides detailed a detailed explanation of each rule, including a narrative of the rule‰s legislative history. The rule explanations include extensive case law citations. Volume 7 contains a subject index and table of cited cases. Volumes are updated with pocket parts.
Other Treatises
You can find other books that discuss court procedure by doing a subject search in the library's catalog using the following subject headings (after clicking below or running a subject heading search, click the topic of interest to see a list of books in our collection that deal with that topic):
* Substitute a state name for "United States" to find materials on state procedure.
You can also refer to our Treatise Finders for other treatises dealing with specific topics (e.g. Evidence Law Treatises).
Federal Rules Decisions (F.R.D.): In addition to including U.S. District Court decisions interpreting federal court rules (see the "Cases" page of this guide), West's F.R.D. also publishes articles commenting on federal court rules.