The genesis of the development of the institute of evidence and admissibility of evidence

The article analyzes the historical development of the institute of evidence and admissibility of evidence. The study found that the admissibility of evidence was not known to the legislator in the times of Kievan Rus, and was, in fact, replaced by the admissibility of evidence sources, which were subject to certain requirements. The first legislative attempt to develop and incorporate rules on the admissibility of evidence into criminal procedure was made in the Russian Empire during the Judicial Reform of 1864. Until the beginning of the XX century, the reformed criminal procedure was based on the public principles of justice. The abandonment of the investigative process based on the theory of formal evidence as a result of the bourgeois democratic reform of 1864 led to the emergence of an adversarial principle: a jury trial was introduced; the accused was no longer an object of investigation aimed at confessing guilt with the admission of torture; the prosecution and defense were equal. However, certain private-law principles remained (for example, private prosecution cases). For the court, internal conviction became the basis for evaluating evidence. A new concept of proof in criminal proceedings was developed. Soviet criminal procedure practically abandoned any rules on the admissibility of evidence. One cannot but agree with the statement that the criminal procedure legislation of the Soviet period was characterized by a reduction of the formal rules of admissibility of evidence. The notion of admissibility of evidence was transferred from the legal plane to the political plane. The CPC of 1960, like its predecessors, did not regulate the issue of admissibility of evidence in any way. It did not contain a provision stating that evidence obtained in violation of the law had no legal force. The situation improved after Ukraine gained independence. The judicial reform made it possible to ensure the protection of human and civil rights in criminal proceedings at a progressive European level, and the process itself became truly competitive and public in accordance with the requirements set forth by Ukrainian society and professional international institutions. The new Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2012 introduced significant changes to the conduct of cognitive activities aimed at obtaining evidence to establish the truth in criminal proceedings. A separate article on «Admissibility of Evidence» was included in the CPC. It states that: firstly, evidence is recognized as admissible if it is obtained in accordance with the procedure established by the CPC of Ukraine; secondly, inadmissible evidence cannot be used in making procedural decisions, and the court cannot refer to it when making a court decision.