On A Lighter Note: Rule Haiku

A lot of my recent posts have been about some pretty heavy duty stuff.  That's to be expected, of course: the docket of the Supreme Court is not known as a source of humor.  But not all things law related have to be deadly serious. I've got an example for you which is both a source of humor, or at least light-heartedness, and even instructional.  Legal education can be fun, too.

 It is a feed I recently found on Twitter: Rule Haiku.  As the site says, "The Federal rules. Turned into haiku. For no real reason."  What Rule Haiku does is just that: take the Federal Rules (Evidence, Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure, Appellate Procedure) and convert them into a standard haiku format, three lines of  5-7-5 syllables in each line.  It's very inventive, is in keeping with the traditional haiku format, and is a fairly good summary of the rule in 17 syllables. 

 Here's an example, from the Federal Rules of Evidence:

 FRE 702.

 Qualified expert 

 Usefulness, facts, and methods

 Must be shown to court

 Is this all you need to know about the rule?  Of course not.  That's why Rule Haiku also posts the text of the rule and the entire Advisory Committee notes, using our old friend LII. 

 You can find Rule Haiku on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RuleHaiku
Rule Haiku also posts (though not as much material) on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgZ5RmL_zYa3PvMq1HqUetw  Here's a sample, with a voice (perhaps the writer of the haikus):




No, it's not "snort your coffee through your nose" funny, but it's light-hearted and distills the rules to an almost Zen-like level.  As someone who has studied and worked with these rules for over 30 years, it's refreshing to see the rules in a new light.

 It just makes me smile.

I hope it does the same for you.

 And we can all use something to smile about these days.



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