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The theory of the law of evidence as established in the United States, and of the conduct of the examination of witnesses
The theory of the law of evidence as established in the United States and of the conduct of the examination of witnesses Author:William Reynolds General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1897 Original Publisher: Callaghan and company Subjects: Evidence (Law) Cross-examination Examination of witnesses Law / General Law / Civil Procedure Law / Evidence Law / Trial Practice Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no il... more »lustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: THE THEORY OF THE LAW OF EVIDENCE. INTRODUCTORY. Sec. 1. Definitions. -- As a judicial decision is nothing more than the application of the established principles of law to a given state of facts, it follows that whenever any tribunal pronounces a judgment it must necessarily assume the existence of certain facts. Unless the facts so assumed by the tribunal have taken place in its presence, it is obvious that it can acquire knowledge of their existence or non- existence only by means of information imparted to it upon the subject; and as it would be clearly impracticable to impose upon courts the labor of collecting such information in regard to every case brought before them, experience has shown that the most convenient as well as efficacious method of administering justice is tlvat courts, in determining questions of fact, should always, except in some matters hereafter to be noticed, be governed in makingtheir decisions solely by such information as may have been produced before them by the parties to the proceeding in accordance with certain prescribed rules of law. If they were allowed to decide on impression or information acquired elsewhere, not only would it be impossible for a superior tribunal, the parties, or the public, to know on what ground the decision proceeded, but it might be founded on common rumor or something else equally untrusfc worthy, which the party to whose prejudice it operated would h...« less