State Courts' Interest in Federal Rulemaking: A Proposal for Recognition

As we approach the half-century anniversary of the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we should take stock of the extent that they have served as a model for state rulemaking. At least thirty states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, now have civil rules substantially identical to the federal rules. Of the remaining states, only three have statutes or rules of civil procedure that bear little or no resemblance to the federal model Even those states such as Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania that have not modeled their civil procedure generally on the federal rules have nonetheless adopted comparable provisions to govern certain matters as, for example, joinder of parties, class actions, or discovery. Thus, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have come to serve the same function that is served in other fields of the law by the work product of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. The federal civil rules are de facto model rules for state rulemakers. A like role has been played only slightly less universally by the federal criminal and evidence rules.