Law of Evidence
State of Kuwait · 69 stored articles
Article index
Search statutory textsArticles 1 – 5047
- Article 1The creditor must prove the obligation, and the debtor must prove discharge thereof.
- Article 2The facts sought to be proved must be related to the action, material to its determination, and admissible.
- Article 3Judgments concerning evidentiary procedures need not state reasons unless they include a definitive ruling. In all cases, judgments rendered in urgent proceedings for…
- Article 4If the court rules that an evidentiary measure is to be carried out, or delegates one of its judges for that purpose, it shall specify in the judgment the date of the…
- Article 5Whenever completion of the procedure requires more than one scheduled date, the day and hour to which it is adjourned shall be stated in the record, and pronouncement of…
- Article 6Incidental matters relating to evidentiary procedures shall be submitted to the delegated judge, and any such matter not submitted to him may not be brought before the…
- Article 7The court may, by a decision recorded in the hearing minutes, depart from the evidentiary measures it has ordered, provided that it states the reasons for doing so in…
- Article 8Official instruments are those in which a public official or a person entrusted with a public service records what has been performed by him or what he has received from…
- Article 9An official document constitutes evidence against all persons of the matters recorded therein that its author performed within the limits of his assignment or that were…
- Article 10If the original of an official document exists, its official copy, whether handwritten or photographic, shall have evidentiary force to the extent that it conforms to…
- Article 11If the original official document does not exist, copies shall have evidentiary force within the following limits: a- The original official copy, whether executory or…
- Article 12The judge shall assess the evidentiary weight of the particulars contained in certificates and extracts transcribed from official documents. Chapter Two Private Documents
- Article 13A private instrument shall be deemed to have issued from the person who signed it unless that person expressly denies the handwriting or Law Index 676 Home Page Evidence…
- Article 14A private instrument shall not constitute evidence against third parties as to its date except from the time it acquires an established date. The date of an instrument…
- Article 15Copies of registered documents obtained from the Real Estate Registration Department shall have the evidentiary force of the original whenever their outward appearance…
- Article 16Signed letters shall have the evidentiary value of a private instrument. Telegrams shall also have this value if their original deposited at the dispatch office is…
- Article 17Merchants' books shall not constitute evidence against non-merchants. Nevertheless, the entries recorded therein concerning what merchants have supplied may constitute a…
- Article 18Mandatory commercial books shall constitute evidence for their merchant owner against his merchant opponent if the dispute concerns a commercial act and the books are…
- Article 19One of two litigants who are merchants may be required to swear an oath as to the truth of his claim if he relies on his opponent's books and accepts their contents in…
- Article 20Household books and papers shall not constitute evidence against the person who issued them except in the following two cases: First: If he expressly states therein that…
- Article 21An endorsement by the creditor on the debt instrument, in his handwriting and without his signature, indicating discharge of the debtor shall constitute evidence against…
- Article 22A litigant may, in the following cases, request that his opponent be ordered to produce any document material to the case that is in his possession: a- If the law…
- Article 23If the applicant substantiates his application, the court shall order production of the document immediately or at the earliest date it specifies. If sufficient proof of…
- Article 24During the course of an action, even before a court of second instance, the court may authorise the joinder of a third party Law Index 678 Home Page Evidence Law…
- Article 25If a litigant submits a document to rely upon as evidence in the action, he may not withdraw it without his opponent's consent except with written permission from the…
- Article 26The court may assess the extent to which scraping, erasure, interlineation and other material defects in an instrument nullify or diminish its evidential value. If the…
- Article 27A challenge on grounds of forgery may be directed against official and private instruments. Denial of handwriting, a seal, a signature or a fingerprint may be directed…
- Article 28If the person against whom a document is adduced denies his handwriting, signature, seal or fingerprint, or the heir or successor swears that he does not know that it…
- Article 29The court shall schedule a hearing for the litigants to attend to submit any comparison documents in their possession, to agree on which of them are suitable for that…
- Article 30The handwriting, signature, seal, or fingerprint that has been denied shall be compared with the handwriting, signature, seal, or fingerprint established as belonging to…
- Article 31If the entire instrument is adjudged authentic, the person who denied it shall be sentenced to a fine of not less than two hundred and fifty dinars and not exceeding…
- Article 32A challenge on grounds of forgery may be brought at any stage of the action. The challenger shall specify every alleged instance of forgery, his evidence and the…
- Article 33The person challenging an instrument on grounds of forgery shall deliver to the Registry the challenged instrument if it is in his possession, or the copy thereof served…
- Article 34A judgment ordering an inquiry into a challenge alleging forgery shall suspend the enforceability of the challenged document, without prejudice to conservatory measures.
- Article 36If a judgment is rendered dismissing a challenge alleging forgery or declaring the challenger's right to adduce proof forfeited, he shall be ordered to pay a fine of not…
- Article 37A person holding a document may bring proceedings against the person against whom that document constitutes evidence, so that he acknowledges that it is in his…
- Article 39In non-commercial matters, if the value of the legal act exceeds five thousand dinars or its value is unspecified, witness testimony shall not be admissible to prove its…
- Article 40Proof by witness testimony is not permissible, and not did not the value exceed five thousand dinars: First: In respect of anything contradicting or exceeding what is…
- Article 41Proof by witness testimony may be admitted in matters required to be proved in writing in the following cases: First: Where there is a commencement of proof in writing.…
- Article 43A witness may not be disqualified, even if he is a relative or a relative by marriage of one of the litigants, unless he is incapable of discernment by reason of old…
- Article 44Each witness shall give his testimony separately, without the presence of the other witnesses whose testimony has not been heard. Witnesses in rebuttal shall be heard at…
- Article 45If a litigant does not bring his witness or summon him to attend the designated hearing, the court shall order him to bring the witness or summon him to attend another…
- Article 46If a witness refuses to attend in response to an invitation from a litigant or the court, the litigant or the Registry, as the case may be, shall summon the witness to…
- Article 47If a witness appears and refuses, without legal justification, to take the oath or answer, he shall be sentenced to a fine not exceeding twenty dinars. If the witness…
- Article 48Questions shall be directed to the witness by the court, and the witness shall first answer the questions of the litigant who called him as a witness, then the questions…
- Article 49The witness's answer shall be entered in the record, then read out to him, and he shall sign it after correcting whatever he considers necessary to correct therein. If…
- Article 50If, when adjudicating the merits of the action, it becomes apparent that a witness has testified falsely, the court shall draw up a record thereof and send it to the…
Articles 51 – 10022
- Article 51A person who fears losing the opportunity to adduce the testimony of a witness concerning a matter not yet brought before the courts but likely to be brought before them…
- Article 52Presumptions prescribed by law shall dispense the person in whose favor they are established from any other means of proof. However, these presumptions may be rebutted…
- Article 53Judgments that have acquired the force of res judicata shall be conclusive as to the matters in dispute that they have determined, and no evidence rebutting this…
- Article 54The civil judge shall not be bound by the criminal judgment except as to the facts adjudicated by that judgment and whose adjudication was necessary. Nevertheless, he…
- Article 55An admission is a litigant's acknowledgment before the judiciary of a legal fact alleged against that litigant, during the course of the action relating to that fact.
- Article 56For an admission to be valid, the person making it must have capacity to dispose of that which he admits. An admission by a person interdicted for prodigality shall be…
- Article 57An admission is binding evidence against the person making it. An admission shall not be divided against its maker unless it concerns multiple facts and the existence of…
- Article 58The court may interrogate any litigant who is present, and each litigant may request the interrogation of his opponent who is present. The court may also order a…
- Article 59If a litigant lacks capacity or has diminished capacity, his representative may be interrogated, and the court may question the litigant himself, if he possesses…
- Article 60The court shall put to the litigant such questions as it considers appropriate, and shall also put to him such questions as the other litigant requests be put. The…
- Article 61Either litigant may, at any stage of the action, tender the decisive oath to the other litigant, provided that the fact to which the oath relates is personal to the…
- Article 62A testamentary guardian, curator or agent of an absent person may not tender or refer back a decisive oath except in matters falling within his authority under the law.
- Article 63A decisive oath may not be tendered concerning a fact contrary to public order.
- Article 64Anyone to whom an oath is tendered who refuses to take it without referring it back to his opponent, and anyone to whom the oath is referred back who refuses to take it,…
- Article 65A litigant may not prove the falsity of an oath after it has been taken by the litigant to whom it was tendered or referred back. However, if the falsity of the oath is…
- Article 66At any stage of the proceedings, the judge may, of his own motion, direct a supplementary oath to either litigant in order to base upon it his judgment on the merits of…
- Article 67The judge may not direct a supplementary oath to the plaintiff to determine the value of the subject of the claim unless it is impossible to determine that value by…
- Article 68A person who tenders an oath to his opponent must precisely specify the facts upon which he wishes him to swear and state the wording of the oath in clear terms. The…
- Article 70The oath shall be taken by the person taking it saying, “I swear by Almighty God,” and reciting the formula approved by the court. In the taking of an oath by a mute…
- Article 71The court may, at the request of a litigant or of its own motion, decide to proceed to inspect the subject matter in dispute, and shall specify in its decision the date…
- Article 72Anyone who fears the loss of the traces of an incident that may become the subject of a dispute before the courts may, as against the persons concerned and through the…
- Article 73This Law shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall enter into force on the first of November 1980. Law Index 688 Home Page Decree-Law No. 46 of 1989…