Book contents
- Critical Evidence
- Critical Evidence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Foreword: An Outsider’s Tribute
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part IIntroduction to the Field and Its Actors
- Part IIThe Rules
- Section 1Relevance and Prejudice
- Relevance, Reconsidered
- The Relevance and Prejudice of Poverty Evidence
- Toward a Critical Race Theory of Evidence
- Section 2Character Evidence
- Character (Evidence) Assassination
- Disability as a Character Chameleon
- Different Spanks for Different Ranks
- Evidence Without Rules
- Judging Demeanor
- Section 3Credibility
- Law’s Credibility Problem
- Teaching Impeachment
- Section 4Sex Trials
- Real Women, Real Rape
- Unchaste and Incredible
- Feminist Take(s) on Other (Sexual) Bad Acts
- Section 5Hearsay and Confrontation
- The Neglected Origins of the Hearsay Rule in American Slavery
- Examining the American Hearsay Prohibition’s Roots in Slavery
- Hearsay and Confrontation from a Feminist Gaze
- Facially Neutral, Quietly Skewed
- Section 6Experts
- Who Says You’re Disabled? The Role of Medical Evidence in the ADA Definition of Disability
- Beyond the Binary
- Presumed Expertise
- Party-Blind Review
- Unequal Burdens of Proof
- Section 7Privileges
- Underprivileged
- Parent-Child Privilege as Resistance
- Part IIIExpanding Evidence
- Suggested Readings
Relevance, Reconsidered
from Part II - The Rules
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2026
Book contents
- Critical Evidence
- Critical Evidence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Foreword: An Outsider’s Tribute
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part IIntroduction to the Field and Its Actors
- Part IIThe Rules
- Section 1Relevance and Prejudice
- Relevance, Reconsidered
- The Relevance and Prejudice of Poverty Evidence
- Toward a Critical Race Theory of Evidence
- Section 2Character Evidence
- Character (Evidence) Assassination
- Disability as a Character Chameleon
- Different Spanks for Different Ranks
- Evidence Without Rules
- Judging Demeanor
- Section 3Credibility
- Law’s Credibility Problem
- Teaching Impeachment
- Section 4Sex Trials
- Real Women, Real Rape
- Unchaste and Incredible
- Feminist Take(s) on Other (Sexual) Bad Acts
- Section 5Hearsay and Confrontation
- The Neglected Origins of the Hearsay Rule in American Slavery
- Examining the American Hearsay Prohibition’s Roots in Slavery
- Hearsay and Confrontation from a Feminist Gaze
- Facially Neutral, Quietly Skewed
- Section 6Experts
- Who Says You’re Disabled? The Role of Medical Evidence in the ADA Definition of Disability
- Beyond the Binary
- Presumed Expertise
- Party-Blind Review
- Unequal Burdens of Proof
- Section 7Privileges
- Underprivileged
- Parent-Child Privilege as Resistance
- Part IIIExpanding Evidence
- Suggested Readings
Summary
The concept of relevance is considered the cornerstone of evidence law. The question of whether evidence is relevant forms one of the court’s first inquiries when considering its admissibility. As per Federal Rule of Evidence 401 (“Rule 401”), which has been adopted widely across states, not only must the piece of evidence have “any tendency” to make the proposition it is offered for more or less probable, but such evidence must be material to the case or the substantive legal issue at hand. As per Federal Rule of Evidence 402, irrelevant evidence is inadmissible in court.
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- Critical Evidence , pp. 87 - 97Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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