CHAPTER III

JUDICIAL NOTICE AND JUDICIAL ADMISSIONS

A. Judicial Notice
1. There are matters in a litigation which must be admitted without need for evidence.
2. Judicial notice is based on the maxim, “what is known need not to be proved”; hence,
when the rule is invoked, the court may dispense with the presentation of evidence on
judicially-cognizable facts.
3. The taking of Judicial Notice is a matter of expediency and convenience for it fulfills the
purpose that the evidence is intended to achieve, and in this sense, it is equivalent to
proof.

FUNCTION OF JUDICIAL NOTICE

-Judicial notice takes the place of proof and is of equal force. It displaces evidence and fulfills
the purpose for which the evidence is designed to fulfill. Hence, it makes evidence
unnecessary.

WHEN JUDICIAL NOTICE IS MANDATORY

1. A judicial notice may either be mandatory or discretionary. When the matter is subject
to a mandatory judicial notice, no motion or hearing is necessary for the court to take
judicial notice of such matter because it is what it says it is – “mandatory.”
2. The following are matters subject to mandatory judicial notice:
a. Existence and territorial extent of states
b. Political history, forms of government and symbols of nationality of states
c. Law of nations
d. Admiralty and maritime courts of the world and their seals
e. Political constitution and history of the Philippines
f. Official acts of the legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the
Philippines
g. Laws of nature
h. Measure of time
i. Geographical divisions
3. It would be error for a court not to take judicial notice of an amendment to the Rules of
Court. All courts should have taken cognizance of the official acts of the legislative,
executive, and judicial departments because they are proper subjects of mandatory
judicial notice as provided by Sec. 1 of Rule 129 of the Rules of Court.

WHEN JUDICIAL NOTICE IS DISCRETIONARY