Historický vývoj presumpce neviny

The article provides a comprehensive overview of the historical development of the presumption of innocence, the basic principle of criminal proceedings and basic human right, from ancient times to its first explicit anchoring on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. It shows that the roots of the presumption of innocence can be found in antiquity, especially in Roman law. In the medieval inquisitional procedure, this principle was suppressed, only to be rediscovered later for continental Europe as a result of the inspiration of the English criminal process and enshrined in particular in the French Declaration of the Rights of the Citizen of 1789, from where it spread further. On the territory of Czechoslovakia, its first explicit establishment took place, surprisingly, in the 1950s, which are associated with the denial of the rights of non-compliant persons.