Sometimes your competition will draft its own court rules. Most competitions, however, refer to an existing set of court rules to define the parameters of your brief (e.g. cover page, filing, etc.). Usually competitions adhere to the United States Supreme Court rules.
This tab will help you locate the relevant court rules you may need to use, in conjunction with your competition rules, to prepare your brief.
The rules of the U.S. Supreme Court can be found in many places, both print and online. In the official code, the rules are published in Title 28, Appendix of the U.S. Code. The annotated rules are in Title 28 of U.S.C.A., in a separate "Court Rules" volume at the end of U.S.C.S. and in volume 17 of U.S. Supreme Court Digest, L.Ed. Current rules are also available at the Court's website.
For researching historical amendments to the federal rules, the U.S. Courts website provides an archive of rules committee reports and meeting minutes. Selected legislative history documents for rule changes can also be found in the bound volumes of the Federal Rules Decisions (Reading Room KF8839 .F4 & online in Westlaw).
The text of court decisions construing rules of procedure are usually printed in the same reports that cover court decisions generally, and can be found using traditional case finding research methods. Two additional sources for decisions construing federal court rules are Federal Rules Decisions (KF8839 .F4) and Federal Rules Service (KF8830.6 .F43x 3d).
Citations to decisions can also be found: (1) in annotated rules compilations such as U.S.C.A. and U.S.C.S.; (2) as references in secondary sources such as Wright and Miller's Federal Practice and Procedure (KF9619 .W7); and (3) by updating citations using Shepard's or KeyCite.
