Legal History Commons^™

Race, Gatekeeping, Magical Words, And The Rules Of Evidence, Bennet Capers -- Professor Of Law

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although it might not be apparent from the Federal Rules of Evidence themselves, or the common law that preceded them, there is a long history in this country of tying evidence-what is deemed relevant, what is deemed trustworthy-to race. And increasingly, evidence scholars are excavating that history. Indeed, not just excavating, but showing how that history has racial effects that continue into the present.

One area that has escaped racialized scrutiny-at least of the type I am interested in-is that of expert testimony. Even in my own work on race and evidence, I have avoided discussion of expert testimony. In …

Foreword, James W. Ely, Terry Calvani

Vanderbilt Law Review

In the hope of giving some direction for a regional approach to the legal past of the South, Vanderbilt Law School, with the generous assistance of the University Research Council, sponsored a two-day Symposium on this important topic in the spring of 1978 and invited leading scholars to participate. Principal papers by Richard Maxwell Brown, Maxwell H. Bloomfield, Robert M. Ireland, A. E. Keir Nash, and Robert J. Haws and Michael V. Namorato discussed diverse aspects of southern legal history.