The impact of the legal positions of The Supreme Court on the formation of the doctrine and practice of criminal procedural evidence law in Ukraine

The article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the impact of the legal positions of the Supreme Court on the formation of the contemporary doctrine and practice of criminal procedural evidence law in Ukraine. The Supreme Court is examined as an interpretative centre that ensures the translation of material constitutional standards of proof, formulated in the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, into the sphere of everyday law enforcement. It is substantiated that the evolution of the Supreme Court’s case law is characterised by a transition from formal proceduralism to a rights-oriented model of the admissibility of evidence, within which the decisive criterion is the seriousness of the violation of human rights and its impact on the fairness of the trial. The article analyses the approaches of the Supreme Court to derivative evidence, covert investigative (search) actions, expert and digital evidence, as well as to the standards of judicial examination of evidence, the application of part three of Article 349 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, and the questioning of the accused. It is demonstrated that the practice of the Supreme Court contributes to the unification of law enforcement and to the enhancement of standards for the reasoning of judicial decisions, while at the same time revealing doctrinal limitations and challenges related to the fragmentation of case law and conflicts between judicial panels. On this basis, the provisions of an author’s constitutionally oriented doctrine of criminal procedural evidence law are formulated, within which proof is understood as a system of procedural guarantees for the protection of human rights, and the legal positions of the Supreme Court are regarded as a key factor in its further development.

criminal procedural proof; admissibility of evidence; Supreme Court; legal positions; rule of law; judicial examination of evidence; Constitutional Court of Ukraine