GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT REGARDING MEANS OF EVIDENCE IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

It has been emphasized that it is impossible to imagine criminal proceedings outside the process of proof and vice versa, because the indicated
types of activity are interconnected. It has been emphasized that the criminal
process is dynamic, undergoes changes taking into account the development of
society, the legal system, etc., and therefore individual elements (institutions) of
criminal procedural law evolve, which is reflected in scientific theories. It has
been found that the formation and development of scientific thought about the
essence, content and significance of means of proof in criminal proceedings was
carried out under the influence of many factors and directly depend on the
established approaches not only in the science of criminal procedure, but also in
evidentiary law. It has been emphasized that the direct influence on the genesis of
scientific thought about means of proof in criminal proceedings is exerted by the
constant updating of criminal procedural legislation taking into account social
needs, for example, against the background of the development of a democratic
and legal state, the implementation of international legal standards in the
domestic criminal process, the adaptation of the procedure for conducting
criminal proceedings to the conditions of martial law, etc. It has been established
that the genesis of scientific thought about means of proof in criminal proceedings
is relevant to the formation and development of scientific approaches to the
definition of the theory of evidence and criminal procedural proof. It has been
stated that the formation of scientific thought about means of proof in criminal
proceedings falls on the first half of the twentieth century, when means of proof
were considered through the prism of the characteristics of the subject of the
theory of evidence and the process of proof. It has been noted that the
development of the scientific idea about means of proof in criminal proceedings
correlates with the historical periods of the development of the criminal process
in general and the doctrine of evidence and proof in criminal proceedings in
particular. It has been established that with changes in scientific approaches to
the definition of evidence in criminal proceedings, scientific positions on the
interpretation of means of evidence have also changed: from recognizing evidence
as the only means of proof to including it in the system of means of proof along
with evidence of procedural actions, forensic means of collecting evidence, logical
techniques, etc.