Exemplified or sworn copies of written and other public documents must, as a general tiling, be produced when they can be procured ; but should they be refused by the competent authorities, then inferior proof may be admitted. Id.
When our own government has promul gated a foreign law or ordinance of a public nature as authentic, that is held sufficient evidence of its existence. 1 Cranch, 38 ; 1 pall. Penn. 462 5. 6 Binn. Penn. 321 ; 12 Serg. & R. Penn. 203.
When foreign laws cannot be proved by some mode which the law respects as being of equal authority to an oath, they must be verified by the sanction of ad oath.
3. The usual modes of authenticating them are by an exemplification under the great searof a state, or by a copy proved by oath to be a true copy, or by a certificate of an officer authorized by law, whicIr must itself be duly authenticated. 2 Cranch, 238 ; 2 Wend. N. Y. 411 ; 6 id. 475; 5 Serg. & R. Penn. 523 ; 15 id. 84 ; 2 Wash. C. C. 175.
Foreign unwritten laws, customs, and usages may be proved, and are ordinarily proved, by parol evidence ; and when such evidence is objected to on the ground that the law in question is a written law, the party objecting must show that fact. 15 Serg. & R. Penn. 87 ; 2 La. 154.
Witnesses in Cuba examined under a com mission touching the execution of a will tes tified, in general terms, that it was executed according to the law of that country ; and, it not appearing from the testimony that there was any written law upon the subject, the proof was held sufficient. 8 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 446.
A defendant pleaded infancy in an action upon a contract governed by the law of Jamaica: held that the law was to be proven as a matter of fact, and that the burden lay upon him to show it. 8 Johns. N. Y. 190.
4. Proof of such unwritten law is usually made by the testimony of witnesses learned in the law and competent to Rate it correctly under oath. 2 Cranch, 237 ; 1 Pet. C. C. 225; 2 Wash. C. C. 175; 15 Serg. & R. Penn. 84; 4 Johns. Ch. N. Y. 520 ; Cowp. 174; 2
Ilagg. Adm. App. 15-144.
In England, certificates of persons in high authority have been allowed as evidence in such cases. 3 Hagg. Eccl. 767, 769.
The public seal of a foreign sovereign or state affixed to a writing purporting to be a written edict, or law, or judgment, is of itself the highest evidence, and no further proof is required of such public seal. 2 Cranch, 238; 2 Conn. 85 ; 1 Wash. C. C. 363 ; 4 Dail. Penn. 413, 416 ; 6 Wend. N. Y. 475 ; 9 Mod. 66. But the seal of a foreign court is not, in general, evidence without further proof, and must, therefore, be established by competent testimony. 3 Johns. N. Y. 310 ; 2 Harr. & J. Md. 193 ; 4 Cow. N. Y. 526, n.; 3 East, 221.
5. By the act of May 26, 1790, it is pro vided " that the acts of the legislatures of the several states shall be authenticated by having the seal of their respective states af fixed thereto." See Rzcoan ; It may here be observed that the rules pre scribed by acts of congress do not exclude every other mode of authentication, and that the courts may admit proof of the acts of the legislatures of the several states, although not authenticated under the acts of congress. Accordingly, a printed volume, purporting on its face to contain the laws of a sister state, is admissible as prima facie evidence to prove the statute law of that state. 4 Cranch, 384; 12 Serg. & R. Penn. 203; 6 Binn. Penn. 321; 5 Leigh, Va. 571.
The effect of foreign laws when proved is properly referable to the court: the object of the proof of foreign laws is to enable the court to instruct the jury what is, in point of law, the result from foreign laws to be ap plied to the matters in controversy before them. The court are, therefore, to decide what is the proper evidence of the laws of a foreign country ; and when evidence is given of those laws, the court are to judge of their applicability to, the matter in issue. Story, Confl. Laws, 638 ; 2 Harr. & J. Md. 193 ; 3 id. 234, 242 ; 4 Conn. 517 ; Cowp. 174.