INTERVIEW BY LAWYER IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AS A METHOD OF COLLECTING EVIDENCE: PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVING THE LEGAL REGULATIONMECHANISM

Abstract

The article substantiates the position of reformatting the division of
powers of the prosecution and the defense in gathering evidence, in particular,
introducing the possibility of conducting an interview by the defense attorney
and assigning the collected explanations to the procedural sources of evidence.
The ways of introducing the mechanism of legal regulation of such activities are
outlined, in particular, by: 1) making changes to Part 2 of Art. 84 of the Criminal
Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding supplementing procedural sources of
evidence with explanations; 2) supplementing Chapter 4 "Evidence and proof"
with a paragraph that would determine the procedural mechanism for selecting
explanations, documenting the results of their receipt in the form of a protocol,
and such requisites as consent to participate in the survey, etc.; 3) exclusion
from Part 8 of Art. 84 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine wording "which
is not a source of evidence, except for the cases provided for by this Code." It is
argued that such regulatory changes will balance the procedural capabilities of
the defense and the prosecution, which in turn will remove the principle of
competition from the state of legal fiction, will become an effective tool for
achieving the goal of criminal proceedings and implementing in practice a
symmetrical procedure for forming the evidence base of the opposing parties.