Burden of Proof
The obligation on a party to prove the facts in issue. In criminal cases, the prosecution must prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. In civil cases, the claimant must prove their case on the balance of probabilities.
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
In an adversarial system, the burden of proof rests with the party bringing the action — the State in a criminal trial, the applicant (claimant) in a civil trial. The court or tribunal does not investigate of its own initiative; it listens to the parties as they present evidence and argument, and its role is closer to that of a referee than an investigator.
The concept is less absolute outside ordinary adversarial litigation. In asylum cases, for example, the general principle is that the burden of proof lies on the person submitting the claim, but because claimants often cannot document their own persecution, the duty to ascertain and evaluate the facts ends up shared in practice between the applicant and the tribunal rather than resting solely on one side.
Related terms
Official sources
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