The principle of competitiveness of the parties and freedom to present their evidence to the court and to prove their conviction before the court in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights

The author determines that the imperative instruction of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine provided for in Part 2 of Article 8 and Part 5 of Article 9 relating to the application of the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, in certain cases, has necessitated a rethinking of the understanding of certain principles of criminal proceedings both individually and in their interconnection with each other, as well as in the compilation with the Court’s case law. This is due not only to the use of autonomous definitions by the European Court of Human Rights, but also to the differences in criminal procedural systems, the peculiarities of professional translation of judgments and many other factors. In this article, the author analyzed the current criminal procedure legislation, decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and scientific articles. Based on the analysis, the author concludes that the main feature of the implementation of the principle of competitiveness of the parts and freedom to present their evidence to the court and to prove their convincing nature in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights is that it is considered a fundamental right in the concept of a fair trial, and equality of the parties is distinguished as a principle (basis) for the implementation of such a right. It is determined that this somewhat does not coincide with the legal regulation of such principles of criminal proceedings as equality before the law and the court and the competitiveness of the parties and the freedom to present their evidence to the court and to prove their convincing nature in the criminal procedure legislation of Ukraine. After all, equality before the law is seen as a prohibition of discrimination, and equality before the court can be seen as a prohibition of discrimination by the court, and as equal opportunities in procedural rights, which is a component of competition. With regard to competitiveness, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights identifies the following features of its implementation: it consists in providing an opportunity to familiarize oneself with the comments and evidence provided by the other party and respond to them; aimed at effective participation in criminal proceedings; equal opportunities should be compensated by judicial procedures in cases where equal opportunities have not been provided earlier.