An Electronic Criminal Case: What it Means and the Ways to Create It

The paper highlights that in modern conditions the improvement of criminal proceedings is firmly connected with the introduction of digital technologies. As a result of this introduction, the usual criminal case on paper will gradually be replaced by an electronic criminal case. The use of such an electronic criminal case can result in many advantages, which are consistently described in the paper. The author notes that certain elements of the future electronic criminal case can already be found in the practical activities of investigative bodies and courts. The author comes to the conclusion that actual prerequisites to transfer materials of a conventional criminal case into digital form are being gradually developed. For a number of objective reasons, this process cannot be facilitated. But lack of facilitation is also unacceptable. The worldwide coronavirus pandemic has sharply raised the possibility of remote examination of criminal cases, reducing human contact to a possible minimum in the investigation of crimes. The possible solution to these problems can be seen in the maximum use of various digital technologies, including the creation of an electronic criminal case. It can be assumed that there will be some dualism in our legal proceedings over a certain transition period — along with a traditional paper criminal case, an electronic criminal case will be used gradually displacing the traditional case. The current task of the legislator is to develop both existing and emerging elements of the future electronic criminal case, determine their legal nature and requirements for their procedural form, develop the concept of the carrier of such a case.