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Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine

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Evaluative Concepts in Criminal Proceedings and ECHR Standards: Interpretation Methodology and Institutional Mechanisms of Implementation

Roman V. Barannik

Received 01.12.2025, Revised 01.01.2026, Accepted 31.03.2026

Abstract

Evaluative concepts are an important element of criminal procedural law, which provides the necessary flexibility of legal regulation, but at the same time creates risks of uneven and fragmented law enforcement. In the absence of legal definitions of such categories, the practice of the European Court of Human Rights acquires special importance, which forms autonomous standards of their interpretation and determines the limits of permissible judicial discretion. The aim of the article is a comprehensive analysis of the methodology for interpreting evaluative concepts in the criminal process of Ukraine through the prism of standards formed by the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of such key evaluative categories as “reasonable suspicion” and “reasonable time”, in the context of the requirements of legal certainty and predictability of court decisions. The methodological basis of the study is dogmatic, structural-functional, comparative law methods and analysis of the case law of the ECHR. The paper examines institutional models of implementation of ECHR standards in criminal proceedings of individual European states, in particular France, Germany, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom, which allowed identifying common and different approaches to integrating the practice of the Strasbourg Court into national legal systems. The practical value of the study lies in substantiating that the practice of the European Court of Human Rights performs an interpretative, unifying and corrective function regarding evaluative concepts, contributing to reducing the risks of arbitrary application of law. It is concluded that the key problem for Ukraine is not the lack of regulatory or educational mechanisms for implementing ECHR standards, but the fragmentation and unevenness of their practical application. An understanding of the doctrine of interpretation of evaluative concepts as a concept of a unified approach to their application in criminal proceedings, taking into account the practice of the ECHR and the positions of national courts, is proposed.

Keywords:

evaluative concepts; case law of the European Court of Human Rights; interpretation of legal categories; implementation of ECHR standards; legal certainty

https://doi.org/10.31359/1993-0909-2026-33-1-324

Retrieved from Journal NALSU №1, 2026 year

Pages 324-340

References Suggested citation

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Suggested citation

Barannik, R.V. (2026). Evaluative Concepts in Criminal Proceedings and ECHR Standards: Interpretation Methodology and Institutional Mechanisms of Implementation. Journal of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine, 33(1), 324-340. https://doi.org/10.31359/1993-0909-2026-33-1-324