The admissibility of evidence is one of the most important problematic topics in the procedural legislation of both criminal and civilian profiles. In any court, in order to clarify disputed points, the parties are obliged to provide evidence to protect their own rights and interests, however, to take them into account they must necessarily comply with the principle of admissibility of evidence.
What is evidence?
According to the official definition of evidence - this is factual information, necessarily obtained legally, on the basis of which decisions are determined on the presence or absence of the circumstances of the case. Parties involved in the case (plaintiff or defendant) have the opportunity to present such evidence to the court in order to protect their own interests.
However, this does not mean at all that the court is obliged to accept any information sent to it for consideration. They must necessarily comply with the principle of admissibility of evidence in relation to a particular case.
What can be considered evidence?
If during the trial the evidence is presented to the court in a form that fully complies with the legislative norms, then they must be considered. Copies of documents, which are certified by the owner of the originals before filing, are standardly similar. Such papers are: contracts, certificates, receipts, protocols, correspondence and much more. All of them must be submitted in such a way that their authenticity can be determined.
In addition, various things may well appear in different procedural areas to prove circumstances. For example, in a criminal trial, evidence like a weapon or a crime scene is used.
Principle of admissibility of evidence
The problem of the admissibility of evidence is one of the key topics addressed in any area of procedural law. The law clearly defines cases in which the court can take into account the information, therefore it is very important not to violate it, since otherwise the entire evidence base in the case may simply not be recognized.
First of all, when considering any materials, judges are guided by two principles: admissibility and relevance. And if relevance is easy to establish, because it is explained primarily by the connection with the facts that are included in the subject of proof, then admissibility is a form of proof. In general, this principle can be characterized as follows - the circumstances of the case, confirmed by reliable evidence, cannot be confirmed by other means of proof.
The legislative framework
In modern Russian legislation, the question of the relevance, admissibility and reliability of evidence is fixed in several sources at once. They should be sought in various legislative acts, depending on the legal sphere.
- To determine the admissibility of evidence in a civil proceeding, one should rely on Article 55 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. The lists of means of evidence are fixed in paragraph 2 of part 1. They can be used to establish facts in the resolution of civil cases.
- To determine the admissibility of evidence in criminal proceedings, as well as the list of evidence used in criminal cases, the procedure is enshrined in Articles 74-75 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
But with all this, the country's main law - the Constitution - in part 2 of article 50 clearly states that during the administration of justice, evidence that is obtained in violation of federal law cannot be used.
Admissibility system
Any evidence obtained by the court, if received correctly, may be considered admissible. However, the very admissibility of evidence in civil and criminal proceedings can be divided into 2 types, depending on the nature.
General admissibility
The general admissibility of evidence - this means that the receipt of information in any case should occur exclusively with the help of certain means of evidence approved by law. The procedure for collecting, examining and presenting evidence to the court is also regulated and cannot be violated, because otherwise they will become unusable.
Special admissibility
The special admissibility of evidence is a list of rules that allow or prohibit the use of evidence obtained to establish the circumstances of a case. Such circumstances include improper compliance with the established written form of the transaction.
This type of admissibility is conditionally divided by a number of scientists into 4 subspecies:
- negative admissibility - evidence meets the rules that prescribe a ban on their use;
- positive admissibility - this evidence is required by the rules to be used to establish certain circumstances of the case;
- imperative-inadmissible evidence - the materials provided as evidence are only a substitute for those that oblige the law to be provided;
- dispositive inadmissible evidence - in this case, the law does not directly set the terms of the contract that is concluded between the parties, therefore they have the right to determine it themselves; all evidence provided for by such a decision may be considered admissible.
Criteria
When the court directly establishes the admissibility of evidence in the criminal and civil proceedings, it is guided by a number of criteria established by this law. Currently they include:
- the mandatory presence of a subject that has all the appropriate rights to receive and collect evidence for further procedural actions, that is, the subject was authorized to perform these actions;
- the entire procedure for the subject to obtain this evidence was fully consistent with the law, in other words, the methods and ways of obtaining information were completely legal;
- all evidence serving as evidence was obtained from an appropriate source. In this case, it is imperative to adhere to laws governing the inadmissibility of the use of information sources;
- the procedural actions of all parties involved in the process of obtaining evidence were fully consistent with the current legislative framework - all evidence received was recorded in the protocol in the form specified for them.
Verification of evidence in civil proceedings
In Russian laws it is clearly spelled out, based on which rules, a judge can recognize the circumstances of a case as proven or unproven, based on the evidence provided by the parties. They must be based on a specific judicial proceeding and meet 2 aspects:
- in its content, the information received must comply with the principle of admissibility of evidence;
- in the process of obtaining and further using the data, they must be fixed in accordance with the existing rules.
In accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the basic rule that a judge must comply with during the consideration of evidence in a case is a ban on the use of information received with any violation of procedural requirements. Even if the information obtained illegally is true, the court must recognize such evidence as inadmissible and not accept it for consideration.