(2018) 2 Visn. Nac. akad. prokur. Ukr. 7–23
doi
Title of the article Demanding of Data, Documents and Things by the Prosecution as a Self-employed Method for Collection of Evidence in Criminal Proceedings
Author(s) OLEKSANDR BOZHKO
prosecutor, unit of procedural supervision in criminal proceedings, special investigation division, Department of Procedural Supervision in Criminal Proceedings under Investigative Jurisdiction of the State Bureau of Investigations, Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, bozhko.os@gp.gov.ua
ANDRII SHYRIAIEV
prosecutor, unit of procedural supervision in criminal proceedings, special investigation division, Department of Procedural Supervision in Criminal Proceedings under Investigative Jurisdiction of the State Bureau of Investigations, Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, shyriaiev.am@gp.gov.ua
Short title
of the journal (ISSN)
Visn. Nac. akad. prokur. Ukr.
Year 2018
Issue 2
Pages [7–23]
Language Ukrainian
Abstract The adoption of the new Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (CPC of Ukraine) has become one of the key stages in the implementation of judicial and legal reform, a radical change in the criminal justice system of Ukraine. The transformation of the model of criminal proceedings in Ukraine became part of a general legal reform regarding the harmonization of domestic legislation with international standards, which led to a revision of a number of provisions of various branches of law, including criminal procedure law.
In general, the current CPC of Ukraine contains many innovations that have changed the relevant law enforcement practices of the judiciary, prosecutor’s office and pre-trial investigation.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, certain provisions of the CPC of Ukraine do not clearly regulate the issue of criminal proceedings, in particular those relating to the gathering of evidence by the prosecution party through the requesting of information, documents and things, as well as the temporal access to them. As a result, in practice, problems often arise in refusing to provide the requested evidence due to frivolous grounds that do not meet the requirements of the current legislation.
At the same time, the provisions of the CPC of Ukraine regarding the temporary access to things and documents are incorrectly interpreted by erroneously attributing it to the method of gathering evidence, resulting in improper further fixing of temporary access to things and documents.
The purpose of the article is a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine, the provisions of which govern the issue of gathering evidence by the prosecution party, for its common understanding and uniform application in practice, as well as the determination of the desirable changes that must be made to the current national legislation.
The criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine is analyzed in terms of the ways and the grounds for the use of information, documents and things by the investigator, the prosecutor, including temporarily accessing them, the issues raised during the exercise of these powers are investigated, the consequences of their failure to be resolved and the methods proposed solution.
The authors conclude that in practice the unified approach to obtaining evidence in criminal proceedings was not worked out on the basis of the written request of the investigator, the prosecutor, in particular the requesting of information and documents that may contain information with restricted access. The provisions of the CPC of Ukraine regarding temporal access to things and documents require additional clarification in terms of its receipt and execution.
Keywords prosecution party; gathering evidence; demanding data, documents and things; requirement of the investigator and prosecutor; liability for non-compliance with legal requirements; temporal access to things and documents as judicial control.
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