Proof by Experts

Source abstract

Abstract Foreign laws are facts in English doctrine, albeit that their legal character makes them different from other facts. Being facts, they remain unknown to a court unless pleaded and proved. And, being facts, courts generally lack judicial notice of their content, which they consequently cannot estab lish by independent research. Exceptionally, courts take judicial notice of foreign law, and sometimes the determination of foreign law requires no special expertise but falls within a court’s inherent knowledge or compe tence.3 Standardly, however, the proof of foreign law belongs to the cate gory of matters which must be established by expert evidence.