Should we abandon admissibility as a required property of evidence?

On the basis of analysis of the provisions of the Federal Law of March 4, 2013 and academic papers the emergence is stated of the trend to the actual release of claims for the requirements of admissibility of evidence in the interests of the speed of investigation. This trend is critically assessed, the importance is stressed of the institution of admissibility as a means of preventing crime and ensuring the rights of citizens, the need for its comprehensive strengthening and compliance is expressed. A legal possibility of using the results of preliminary inquiries as evidence does not largely meet the requirements of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation stated in Articles 74 and 75 concerning admissibility of evidence. Without admissibility, these results are unlikely to be considered evidence. Moreover, it is impossible to rank them as statutory types of evidence (Part 2 of Article 74 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code) or other documents, for according to Article 84 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code the latter must be obtained, reclaimed and presented in the order of Article 86 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code, that is, by the proceedings prescribed by law. One cannot consider legitimate attempts by some researchers to classify as other documents any attributable information obtained without investigation, that is, infinitely expanding the amount of this kind of evidence and denying the concept of evidence of necessary clarity. Changes made in the criminal procedure by the Federal Law of March 4, 2013 have a narrow pragmatic purpose - to extend the tasks of the stage of initiation of criminal cases by means of a sharp increase of the cognitive activity at this level, equating them to the tasks of preliminary investigation and their resolution by simplified procedures that facilitate the activities of investigation bodies. This purpose became particularly obvious in the establishment of an inquiry in a reduced form performed in a radically simplified investigation (Chapter 32 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code). Refusal of admissibility of evidence clearly expressed in the Federal Law of March 4, 2013, as well as in a number of academic papers, despite its preservation in the norms of the RF Criminal Procedure Code speeds up the proceedings, but it can cause significant harm to the domestic proceedings, since it allows to build it on questionable evidence and on the substitution of proven tools of their acquisition by non-procedural analogs. History shows that disregard for the procedural form is capable to generate gross violations of law and of the rights of citizens. Thus, the institute of admissibility of evidence requires a comprehensive strengthening and strict compliance in practice. The negative experience of the application of new legal provisions expected in the future may confirm this assumption.

Keywords

Authors

References