Christopher B. Mueller

Prior to joining the faculty of Colorado Law School, Christopher Mueller was a professor of law at the Universities of Illinois and Wyoming. For many years, his scholarship has focused on evidence law, particularly the rules governing hearsay and impeachment, and issues under the confrontation clause associated with hearsay.

His interest in hearsay stems from his interest in, as he says, "the tension between the tendency of lawyers to interpret language grammatically and structurally and the human tendency to speak by indirection, analogy, idiom, and image." He notes that "hearsay doctrine is too often interpreted literally, and too often interpreted so as to overlook the senses in which language has operative effect."

In recent years, he turned his attention also to Civil Procedure, and his current writing project is a coursebook entitled Twenty First Century Procedure, to be published by Wolters-Kluwer in 2013. He used a draft first edition of the book in 2011 and will use a revised version in Fall 2012.

Professor Mueller has written a five-volume treatise, Federal Evidence, that is updated annually and cited approximately twice a week by appellate courts across the country, state and federal, and has been cited five times by the United States Supreme Court. He is also the author of a coursebook entitled Evidence Under the Rules, currently in its Seventh Edition, that is in use in more than 100 law schools. He has also written Evidence Practice Under the Rules, a one-volume source for judges and lawyers. Finally, he has written a student hornbook entitled Evidence and a Black Letter Outline of Evidence, both in frequent use in law schools across the country. Professor Laird Kirkpatrick of George Washington University collaborated with Professor Mueller on the evidence projects, and Professor Charles H. Rose III of Stetson University joined Professors Mueller and Kirkpatrick in writing a practice commentary for Evidence Practice Under the Rules.

Major media outlets and newspapers across the country called on Professor Mueller during their coverage of important national trials. For example, in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh, Professor Mueller appeared several times on The Jim Lehrer Newshour, and was frequently interviewed on National Public Radio. In addition to his work in revising Twenty First Century Procedure, Professor Mueller is working on a new edition of the five-volume Treatise Federal Evidence, to be published in 2013.

Areas of Specialty

Evidence; Civil Procedure; Complex Litigation; Class Actions

Education

JD, University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall
AB, Haverford College