GENESIS OF THE FORENSIC DOCTRINE ON THE COLLECTION, EXAMINATION, AND USE OF EVIDENCE IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of historical factors that significantly influenced the formation of the forensic doctrine on the collection, examination, and use of evidence in criminal proceedings, as well as to the periodization of this area of forensic knowledge.Among the key factors in the development of forensic knowledge on evidence and proof are the general state of scientific and technological progress, the condition of material and procedural criminal law, the specifics of law enforcement and judicial practice, as well as the state of the parent science and its particular theories. The author demonstrates that the formation of forensic knowledge regarding the specifics of evidentiary activity in criminal justice began concurrently with the establishment of ancient judicial proto-procedures. It is shown that the earliest forensic-like recommendations were embedded in religious and normative texts. It is argued that in the modern era, the accumulation of forensic knowledge was facilitated by the Industrial Revolution and the codification of criminal law. The article notes the ideological and political bias that characterized domestic forensic science of soviet era. At the same time, it highlights the key contributions made by Ukrainian scholars during the soviet period and in the era of Ukraine’s independence to the formation of the analyzed forensic doctrine. Among the defining milestones of the current stage in the development of forensic knowledge on evidence and proof in criminal proceedings are the adoption of Ukraine’s course toward European and Euro-Atlantic integration and the unprovoked full-scale military invasion by the russian federation.Within the genesis of the national forensic doctrine on the collection, examination, and use of evidence in criminal proceedings, five major stages are distinguished: (1) pre-scientific period (until the second half of the 19th century); (2) period of formation of forensic science (second half of the 19th century – 1919/1939); (3) soviet period (1919/1939 – 1991); (4) period of Ukraine’s independence (1991–2019); (5) contemporary stage (from 2019 onwards).