Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 1967

Keywords

Judicial notice, Uniform Rules of Evidence, Due process, Hearsay, Morgan-Davis dispute

Disciplines

Courts | Evidence | Judges | Legal Profession

Abstract

The author describes the common law as a "machine," with judges and lawyers as its working parts. He explains that its successful operation requires a kind of "intellectual adrenalin" in order to keep it responsive to its changing environment. This is the function of judicial notice. The author next examines the different views of judicial notice and points out that each is a reflection of the era in which it was created. He concludes that judicial notice is not a distinct doctrine like the hearsay rule, but rather is simply the art of thinking as practiced within the legal system.

Publication Citation

Published in: Cornell Law Review, vol. 52, no. 2 (Winter 1967).

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