John Henry Wigmore (March 4, 1863 — April 20, 1943) was a U.S. jurist and expert in the law of evidence. After teaching law at Keio University in Tokyo (1889—1892), he was the dean of Northwestern Law School (1901 to 1929). He is most known for his Treatise on the Anglo-American System of Evidence in Trials at Common Law (1904) and a graphical analysis method known as a Wigmore chart.
Born in San Francisco, son of John and Harriet Joyner Wigmore, Wigmore attended Harvard University and earned the degrees AB in 1883, AM in 1884, and LLB in 1887. Following his graduation, he practiced law in Boston before being recruited as a foreign advisor to Meiji period Empire of Japan, and was assigned to teach law at Keio University in Tokyo from 1889 through 1892.
Wigmore's lasting influence is hard to measure in the evolution of legal systems in Japan and the United States. A major legacy of his time in Japan was the beginning of detailed study of the laws of the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo period Japan, which he edited and published as a series of papers while at Keio University. The collection of papers grew to 15 volumes under the collected title of Materials for the Study of Private Law in Old Japan before its completion in the mid-1930s.
Wigmore accepted a post at Northwestern University and returned to the United States in 1893. He became the dean of Northwestern Law School from 1901 to 1929.
In the 1880s Wigmore was also a leader for election law reform issues such as the secret voting method, and fair ballot access laws. He was also a manager of the 1907-founded Comparative Law Bureau of the American Bar Association, whose Annual Bulletin was the first comparative law journal in the United States.
In 1904 he published his most famous work, Treatise on the Anglo-American System of Evidence in Trials at Common Law (usually known as Wigmore on Evidence or just Wigmore), an encyclopedic survey of the development of the law of evidence.
Wigmore's evidence rules are still used by many U.S. courts, including the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The modern basis for evidentiary rules in federal courts, however, are set forth in the Federal Rules of Evidence. Many states have evidence rules that are similar to those contained in the Federal Rules of Evidence. Among other things, these rules hold that evidence inadvertently disclosed is fair game in court, even if that evidence should have been protected by attorney-client privilege. Under recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, so-called "clawback agreements," under which information inadvertently disclosed can be retrieved, and the privilege effectively restored, are expressly permitted. If both sides are willing to enter into such an agreement, the adverse consequences of inadvertent disclosure can be minimized. A "clawback agreement" is most effective if it signed before any inadvertent disclosure occurs.
He also developed a graphical method for analysis of evidence known as the Wigmore chart.
1891 -- Notes on Land Tenure and Local Institutions in Old Japan: Posthumous Papers of D. B. Simmons (John Henry Wigmore, editor). Tokyo: Asiatic Society of Japan. [reprinted by University Publications of America, 1979. 10-ISBN 0-890-93223-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-890-93223-0; OCLC 5622796
1892 -- Materials for the Study of Private Law in Old Japan. Tokyo: Asiatic Society of Japan. OCLC 26107737
1976 -- Law & Justice in Tokugawa Japan: Contract, Legal Precedents. New York: Columbia University Press. 10-ISBN 0-860-08166-4: 13-ISBN 978-0-860-08166-1
1985 -- Law and Justice in Tokugawa Japan: Contract, Commercial Customary Law. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. 10-ISBN 0-860-08375-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-860-08375-7
1986 -- Law and Justice in Tokugawa Japan: Materials for the History of Japanese Law and Justice Under the Tokugawa Shogunate 1603-1867. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. 10-ISBN 0-860-08396-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-860-08396-2
