Legal Definitions - onus probandi

Onus probandi

The responsibility of proving a claim or assertion.

• In a court case, the prosecution has the onus probandi to prove the defendant's guilt.
• When making a scientific claim, the researcher has the onus probandi to provide evidence to support their hypothesis.

These examples show that onus probandi refers to the burden of proving something. In a court case, the prosecution must provide evidence to prove the defendant's guilt. Similarly, in science, researchers must provide evidence to support their claims. In both cases, the onus probandi is on the person making the claim or assertion.