presumption of identity rule
presumption-of-identity rule. The common-law rule that unless there is a specific, applicable statute in another state, a court will presume that the common law has developed elsewhere identically with how it has developed in the court’s own state, so that the court may apply its own state’s law. • Today this rule applies primarily in Georgia. See Shorewood Packaging Corp. v. Commercial Union Ins., 865 F. Supp. 1577 (N.D. Ga. 1994). [Cases: Evidence 80. C.J.S. Evidence § 149.]