Rule 44.1.Judicial Notice of Certain Law; Determination of Foreign Law

Division (A) requires courts to take judicial notice of the Ohio Supreme Court's rules and of Ohio's decisional, constitutional, and public statutory law automatically, without any party needing to raise it. A party who wants to rely on a municipal ordinance, a local court rule, or an Ohio administrative regulation must give notice in a pleading or other reasonable written notice, though a court may take judicial notice of its own rules or of an ordinance within its territory without any advance notice. Once notice is given, the court may inform itself in whatever manner it thinks proper and may ask counsel to help gather the information, and the court's determination is treated as a ruling of law made by the court, not a question of fact for the jury. The same notice requirement, and the same law-versus-fact treatment, applies to a party who wants to rely on the decisional, constitutional, statutory, or regulatory law of another state, territory, or U.S. jurisdiction.

Division (B) extends the same framework to foreign-country law: a party who intends to rely on it must give notice in a pleading or other reasonable written notice, and the court may consider any relevant material or source -- including testimony, whether or not any party submitted it -- in determining what that law provides, with the determination again treated as a ruling of law for the court rather than the jury.