6.2 Shifting of Burden

The machinery: the burden's evidentiary shifts through the trial — the plaintiff's prima facie case (the burden of production met) → the defendant's answering evidence (the burden passes to the defendant to go forward) → the plaintiff's rebuttal — the tennis-match's rhythm, while the legal burden stays with the party who bears it. The shift's triggers: the presumption's operation (the basic fact proved — the presumed fact's burden passes to the opponent: the presumption of innocence's reverse face; the regularity presumption; the special laws' reversals of 6.4); the affirmative defence's pleading (the defendant who pleads payment, alibi's indications, or insanity assumes the going-forward duty on those facts); the statutory reversals (the special laws placing the legal burden itself on the accused — the constitutionality debates). The rule to memorise: the evidentiary burden dances; the legal burden (in the ordinary case) stays home.