learned treatise rule
learned-treatise rule. Evidence. An exception to the hearsay rule, by which a published text may be established as authoritative, either by expert testimony or by judicial notice. • Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, a statement contained in a published treatise, periodical, or pamphlet on sciences or arts (such as history and medicine) can be established as authoritative — and thereby admitted into evidence for the purpose of examining or cross-examining an expert witness — by expert testimony or by the court’s taking judicial notice of the authoritative nature or reliability of the text. If the statement is admitted into evidence, it may be read into the trial record, but it may not be received as an exhibit. Fed. R. Evid. 803(18). [Cases: Criminal Law 439; Evidence 363. C.J.S. Criminal Law §§ 1032, 1038; Evidence §§ 1005–1006.]
