Date Chartered: 1/1/1973
Purpose
The Section on Evidence promotes the communication of ideas, interests, and activities among members and makes recommendations on matters of interest in the teaching and improvement of the law relating to evidence.
Annual Meeting Programs
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
- Main Program
- Evidence
- Luncheon
- Teaching Methods (Co-sponsored by Evidence)
Awards
John Henry Wigmore Award for Lifetime Achievement
The purpose of the award is to honor those who have reached what in former years might have been considered retirement age (whether or not they have retired) and who have made leading contributions to the understanding of the proof process, or to the administration and reform of the rules of evidence and the process of proof, or both. Such an award is fully consistent with, and in furtherance of, the purposes and ends of the AALS Section on Evidence, in that it gives appropriate peer recognition to signal achievement in the spheres of scholarship and the administration and reform of the law.
Selection Process: The process of selection shall be that the Chair of the Evidence Section shall seek nominations for the AALS Section on Evidence through its discussion lists, websites or mail in any year when an award might be made under these rules, to determine if there are any nominees for the award. The AALS Section on Evidence Officers and Executive Committee shall discuss the nominees by e-mail or conference call, as the Chair shall arrange, and then vote. The nominee receiving the most votes (after run-ff between the top two nominees, in the event no nominee receives a majority on the initial polling) shall receive the award, providing that the recipient is then approved by 2/3 of the full body of the Officers and Executive Committee as meeting the criteria set above. Before the award is announced, the AALS Section on Evidence will submit in writing how the AALS Section on Evidence followed its award procedures and criteria, the AALS National Office will inform the Section that the award can be announced after it has been determined that the Section has followed their award procedures and criteria. The awards shall be announced in advance of the next annual meeting of the AALS, and shall be made at the AALS Section on Evidence meeting or luncheon at the AALS Annual Meeting.
Recipients
| Year | Award Name | Recipient | Law School |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | John Henry Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Paul Rothstein | Georgetown University Law Center |
| 2023 | John Henry Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Richard D. Friedman | University of Michigan Law School |
| 2022 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Eleanor Swift | University of California, Berkeley School of Law |
| 2021 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Edward Imwinkelried | University of California Davis School of Law |
| 2020 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | David Kaye | The Pennsylvania State University – Penn State Law |
| 2019 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Paul C. Gianelli | Case Western Reserve University, School of Law |
| 2018 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Roger Park | University of California, Hastings School of Law |
| 2017 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Michael Risinger | Seton Hall University School of Law |
| 2015 | Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award | Peter Tillers | Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University |