Article II: Of the Production of Documents and the Action for Exhibiting Them

Documents do not have the force of proving in judgment unless they are originals or exhibited in an authentic copy and deposited with the chancery of the tribunal, except documents which are of public law, such as laws duly promulgated.

Documents are to be exhibited in authentic form and deposited in judgment, so that they can be examined by the judge and by the adversary.

§ 1. If a doubt is raised whether a copy has been faithfully transcribed or not, the judge, at the instance of a party or even from office, can decree that the document itself be exhibited from which the copy was taken.

§ 2. If this can be done either not at all or only with very great difficulty, the judge can delegate an auditor or request the local Ordinary for the examination and collation of the document, prescribing concerning what articles and in what manner the collation must be made; but each party can be present at the collation.

Common documents, or those which concern a common business, such as testaments and instruments which regard successions, partitions of goods, contracts, and other things of this kind concerning which there is a lawsuit between the parties, any one of the litigants can petition that they be exhibited in law by that party who is said to possess them.

§ 1. Nevertheless no one is held to exhibit documents, even common ones, which cannot be communicated without danger of harm according to the norm of can. 1755, Sec. 2, n. 2, or without danger of violation of secrecy to be preserved.

§ 2. Nevertheless, if at least some particle of the document which it is of interest to produce can be described and exhibited in copy without the mentioned inconveniences, the judge can decree that the same be exhibited.

§ 1. If a party refuses to exhibit a document to be produced by law, which he is said to possess, the judge, at the request of the other party and after the promoter of justice or defender of the bond has been heard if there is need, is to establish by interlocutory sentence whether and how the exhibition of the same document is to be made.

§ 2. If the party refuses to obey, it belongs to the judge to estimate how much this refusal is to be valued.

§ 3. But if the party denies that the document is with him, the judge can subject him to examination and compel him to render an oath concerning this matter.