Rule 44.1.Determination of Foreign Law

Rule 44.1 is a single paragraph, identical to its civil counterpart, and it does three things in order.

Notice

A party who intends to raise an issue concerning the law of the United States, of any state, territory or dependency, or of a foreign country must give notice in the pleadings or by other reasonable written notice. The rule does not set a deadline; "reasonable" is the standard, and the pleadings are the obvious place.

This matters in the Probate and Family Court more than the rule's brevity suggests. Foreign marriages and divorces, out-of-state separation agreements, and support orders from other jurisdictions all raise questions of another jurisdiction's law, and this is the rule that governs how the issue is put.

Sources

In determining the law, the court may consider any relevant material or source, including testimony, whether or not submitted by a party or admissible under Rule 43. Each part of that clause loosens something: the court is not confined to what the parties provide, and it is not confined to admissible evidence.

Character of the determination

The court's determination is treated as a ruling on a question of law. That classification, not the process that produced it, is what sets the standard of review — a determination of foreign law is reviewed as a legal ruling rather than as a finding of fact under Rule 52(a)'s clearly-erroneous standard.