This book enables teaching of the rules of evidence, with an in-depth understanding achieved by no other casebook. The authors extensively cover rationales for the rules and how they fit into our system of resolving civil disputes as well as handling criminal justice issues in both jury and non-jury contexts. Many books focus on teaching the rules only in a trial practice mode. In this era of fewer trials, the book's philosophic underpinning is that the best way to teach Evidence is to provide students with a full and in-depth understanding of each rule so as to prepare them to deal with any possible variation on the issues that can arise at the stages of fact-gathering and investigation, or deposition and discovery, or at the stages of trial, or on appeal. The new edition, while as comprehensive and rich in analysis and supporting materials as previous editions, also contains new explanatory material designed to further students' understanding of the issues.

This edition blends the new with the old, representing the latest installment of a casebook with a lineage that dates back to the nineteenth century. The tenth edition retains much of the historical evolution of evidence law from its common law origins through the emergence of the Federal Rules of Evidence and analogous state approaches. In addition, this comprehensive casebook covers new developments in scientific evidence, and applies new insights from fields such as logic and probability.