[Foundation-l] Wikipedia quoted in Indian Supreme court case

[Fred Bauder]

> Dear all,
>
> The following media reports of wikipedia being quoted a recent  Indian
> Supreme court case may be of interest to some of you.
>
> Supreme court Judge Justice Markandey Katju referred to some of the
> common
> tenets of the *Common Law
> Marriage*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common-law_marriage> -
> quoting from a Wikipedia entry.

This:

Quoting from the ‘Common Law Marriage' entry on Wikipedia — an
Internet-based encyclopaedia that allows anyone, anywhere in the world to
edit entries — Justice Katju had listed four conditions a couple must
satisfy if they are to get the benefit of such a marriage: they must hold
themselves out to society as being akin to spouses; they must be of legal
age to marry; they must be otherwise qualified to enter into a legal
marriage, including being unmarried; and they must have voluntarily
cohabited and held themselves out to the world as being akin to spouses
for a significant period of time.

from

> http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article843120.ece

is a very interesting use of Wikipedia, to quote black letter law that
everyone is familiar with, but which can be a little difficult to cite if
one is expected to locate the exact precedent in published decisions. An
alternative would be an introductory text of the sort used in law school
courses in family law.

Fred