A number of presumptions are found in most
common law jurisdictions. Examples of these presumptions include: • The
presumption of death. A person who has been absent for seven years without explanation and "gone to parts unknown" is presumed dead at common law. The time period it takes for the presumption to arise has often been modified by statute. • The
presumption of sanity. A person who faces criminal trial is presumed sane until the opposite is proved. Similarly, a person is presumed to have testamentary capacity until there is evidence to undermine that presumption. • The
presumption of innocence, which holds that the prosecution bears the burden of proof in a criminal case with the result that the accused may be acquitted without putting forward any evidence. • The
presumption of legitimacy or
presumption of paternity, which presumes that a husband is the
legal father of a child born to his wife during the marriage, or within nine months after the marriage is ended by death,
legal separation, or
divorce. Some jurisdictions also hold that a presumption of paternity arises when a father accepts a child into his home, or publicly represents that he is the child's father. • A
presumption of survivorship has referred to a number of different presumptions. The term is sometimes used to refer to presumptions that one or another of two persons lived the longer when
they died together in the same accident. The presumption that two or more people who establish a
joint account intend for the survivors to have the assets put into the fund upon the death of one of the joint account holders has also been called the "presumption of survivorship". • The
presumption of mailing presumes that a properly addressed letter delivered to the post office or a
common carrier was in fact delivered and received by the addressee. • The presumption of
fraud or
undue influence arises where a person in a position of
trust over another, such as a
guardian or the holder of a
power of attorney applies the other person's assets to their own benefit. • The
presumption of validity is another way of expressing a burden of proof: the official acts of courts are presumed valid, and those who would challenge them must overcome this presumption. This is also termed the
presumption of regularity. • The
presumption of advancement in relation to transfers from husbands to wives and from fathers to children. • In commercial contracts, there is a presumption that parties to a contract intend all disputes between them to be determined within the same forum. This presumption is also known as "one-stop adjudication" and reflects the belief that contracts are entered into by
rational business parties. A German
Bundesgerichtshof (
Federal Court of Justice) decision made on 27 February 1970 thought there was "every reason to presume that reasonable parties will wish to have the relationships created by their contract and the claims arising therefrom ... decided by the same tribunal and not by two different tribunals", and the
Federal Court of Australia in
Comandate Marine Corp v Pan Australia Shipping Pty Ltd. (2006) referred to a "sensible commercial presumption that the parties did not intend the inconvenience of having possible disputes from their transaction being heard in two places". The
House of Lords in
Premium Nafta Products Ltd (20th Defendant) and Ors v. Fili Shipping Company Ltd and Ors (2007) noted that "this approach to the issue of construction is now firmly embedded as part of the
law of international commerce" and endorsed a ruling the
Court of Appeal made on this basis, stating that this presumption "must now be accepted as part of our
[England and Wales] law too". • In the
law of the United States, the
presumption of constitutionality presumes that all statutes are drafted in accordance with
Federal and
state constitutional requirements. The party challenging the constitutionality of a statute bears the burden of proof, and any doubts are resolved against that party. If there are two reasonable interpretations of a statute, one of which is constitutional and the other not, the courts choose the path that permits upholding the statute. ==Conclusive (irrebuttable) presumption==