The role of common knowledge facts in modern arbitration litigation

The article deals with the problem of establishing common knowledge facts in the process of judicial proof, as circumstances that precluded the need for their proof. The relevance of the study is since the legal and doctrinal interpretation of the concept of "common knowledge facts" in Russian law has not changed for a long period of time. At the same time, the sources from which the court can obtain information about common knowledge circumstances have changed significantly, considering the processes of global informatization of public relations. The author of the study is to clarify the role played by common knowledge facts in modern arbitration litigation in Russia, considering the possibility of courts using publicly available sources of information in the process of proof.
In the article, the author analyzes the judicial practice of district arbitration courts on the issue of establishing common knowledge facts and refers to the research of American legal scholars in the field of application of the doctrine of judicial notice, which is also related to the establishment of facts by courts that are not subject to proof because of their common knowledge. In addition, the article describes the data and the result of an experiment conducted as part of the study of the 4th year students of the Faculty of Law of Kuban State University (training level: bachelor's degree) of the discipline "Arbitration process", regarding the use of modern information sources to establish common knowledge facts in the judicial process.
As a result of the conducted research, it was found that arbitration courts establish as circumstances that are not subject to proof not only facts that have the properties of "common knowledge", but also facts about which information can be obtained from publicly available sources, for example, from publications in the media and the Internet. In this regard, the role of common knowledge facts in the modern arbitration process has acquired a different, more ambitious significance. The analysis of foreign scientific literature in the field of application of the doctrine of judicial notice has shown, in general, a positive attitude to the use of information from publicly available sources, including the Internet, as facts that are not subject to proof.
Based on the results of the study, the author comes to the need to reflect the trends of judicial practice at the legislative level and proposes to amend part 1 of article 69 of the Arbitration Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, stating it in the following wording: "The circumstances of the case recognized by the arbitration court as common knowledge, including those published in publicly available sources of information, do not need to be proved".

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