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Terms Used In 6 Guam Code Ann. § 2118

  • Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
All questions of law in both criminal and civil proceedings, including the admissibility of testimony, the facts preliminary to such admission, and the construction of laws and other writings, and other rules of evidence, are to be decided by the court, and all discussion of law addressed to it.

Questions of law once decided by the court may not, thereafter, be raised for reconsideration by the jury.
SOURCE: CCP § 2102, as modified.

CROSS-REFERENCE: Parallel provision – Div. 1 § 104. See 8 Guam Code Ann. § 65.15 for the requirement of raising certain motions before trial in criminal cases.

COMMENT: The modification reflects the fact that this Section should apply to both criminal and civil proceedings. Recent cases have indicated that there is no clear law governing the case in criminal proceedings, except for this Section. Therefore, in the

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6 Guam Code Ann. EVIDENCE
DIV. 2 PRINCIPLES OF EVIDENCE
CH. 1 GENERAL PRINCIPLES

absence of any particular law or even particular case law, the Commission has made sure that this Section refers to both criminal and civil proceedings.

The final paragraph of this Section has been added because of a criminal case wherein the question was raised governing the admissibility of evidence and no clear law was found on the subject, not even in the Guam Rules of Evidence (Division 1) [Case unre- ported at this time.] Utilizing case law, the trial judge ultimately decided the law in the manner of the final sentence, which is why this final sentence is written as it is.

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