Historical legal research is often vital to making a convincing legal argument. A point of law can often turn on a statute or rule that is decades old.
A particularly difficult area of this research is Oregon court rules. If you are lucky enough to well stocked library you may have access back to Merrill's 1981 manual of Oregon Civil procedure. Finding historical Oregon court rules prior to 1981 can be difficult.
The Oregon Reports can help! The official reporter of the Oregon Supreme Court published court rules staring with it's first volume in 1852. You can find Oregon Court rules through 1979 published alongside the court opinions. The Oregon Reports also contains a number of other interesting sets or rules. You can find the US District of Oregon court rules from 1862 and state circuit court rules from 1872.
It has also been the practice of the court to publish memorials to certain persons. Generally the court has included memorials of Justices and Judges of the Oregon appellate courts. There are a few other non-judicial memorials, including a memorial to the long serving State of Oregon Law Librarian Edward N. Gillingham. These memorials are interesting in themselves but also provide insight into the court's history.
I have compiled the work of Mary Bauman, Pat Zollner, Mary Yunker into a spreadsheet that details in what volumes you can find these useful records. Click on the link below to download the spreadsheet.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx7JgEyZBR3aTXpqLWFLQl9ncUE
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