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The scientific article examines the institution of witness testimony in the process of investigating criminal offenses. A topical issue is the role of witnesses in criminal proceedings as a key source of information that can significantly influence the establishment of the truth. The scientific article is devoted to the problems that arise when obtaining and using witness statements, in particular, their reliability and, accordingly, admissibility, the influence of external pressure and other participants in the proceedings or officials, as well as the possibility of distortion of information, unreliability of data. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the legal confirmation of evidence in the protocol, which is important to ensure the acceptance of this evidence. The rights and obligations of the witness are investigated before the interrogation begins and such results are recorded in the protocol. An appropriate source of accurate recording of the testimony of a witness is audio recording or video recording, and the use of information technology during interrogation is a certain deterrent to the provision of reliable information by witnesses. The testimony of persons in criminal proceedings is recorded in a protocol, which has the form defined by the criminal procedure law and is a mandatory document. In the interrogation protocol itself, it is indicated that the witness was warned about giving false testimony and refusing to testify. At the same time, witnesses have the right not to testify against their relatives. The interrogation protocol has a clearly defined structure, mandatory requisites for filling it out, during the interrogation the witness has the right to use the legal assistance of a lawyer. An important procedural activity is the assessment of the credibility of witness statements and other procedural sources of evidence, which is carried out by the investigator, prosecutor, investigating judge, court on the basis of the law and within the limits of their procedural powers. The main properties of the testimony of a witness, the totality of which forms the content of this type of evidence: the information is an oral or written message; the source of information is a person granted the procedural status of a witness; the information is important for this criminal proceeding; compliance with the requirements of the legislation is ensured when receiving and processing information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the study of the legal category “witness immunity”, which is used in civil proceedings. The question of the legal nature of the immunity of a witness in civil proceedings and the practical application of the norms of the current civil procedural legislation, which creates the possibility of the existence of such a legal category, is relevant in the conditions of the focus of the current legislation on the observance of human rights and the provision of guarantees for the realization of the rights and legitimate interests of a person. Therefore, special attention in the article is devoted to clarifying the legal benefit of witness immunity and the role of this legal instrument in ensuring the legal rights and interests of a person during the consideration of a civil case in court. Тhe article analyzes the norms of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, which establish the legal status of a witness in civil proceedings. Particular attention was paid to the characteristic features of witness participation in civil proceedings. The author emphasizes the importance of protecting a person’s private interest during civil proceedings. During the research, it was established that the immunity of a witness in the scientific literature is interpreted both as the right of a person involved in the consideration of a civil case in court as a witness, and as a privilege that distinguishes a witness from other participants in the legal process. Based on the analysis of the norms of the current legislation and sources of scientific legal literature, conclusions were made that allow us to assert that the immunity of a witness in civil proceedings is a component of the procedural status of a witness. It was also concluded that the immunity of a witness is precisely the right of a person involved in the consideration of a court case as a witness, which is due to the need to observe the rights and freedoms of a person during civil proceedings, and is also a form of embodying the priority of a person’s private interests. And that is why it is not appropriate to consider the immunity of a witness as a privilege of a person and an advantage of the participation of a witness in civil proceedings in comparison with other participants in the judicial process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the issue of immunity of a witness in civil proceedings in view of the current legislation, which became the basis for the formation of the status of a witness in a civil court case. The author examines the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine, the Civil Code of Ukraine, and other laws of Ukraine, which establish provisions on the protection and realization of the subjective rights and private interests of a person on general grounds and cannot be violated during the implementation of any legal relations, including civil procedural ones. Provisions of international normative acts regarding the protection of private interests of a person during civil proceedings are also taken into account. The article emphasizes that the role of the witness in civil proceedings is important in the formation of the evidence base during the trial, while the performance of the tasks of civil proceedings should not create a threat of negative consequences for the person, his relatives and relatives related to the spread information with limited access. The article states that the immunity of a witness in civil proceedings is exercised either through the right of the witness to refuse to testify, or through the court's duty not to allow interrogation of persons performing official or professional activities regarding the types of information, the list of which is provided for by procedural legislation. In order to find out the reasons for establishing the specified list of types of information, the legislation that defines the types of information with limited access, which cannot be disclosed on the basis of mandatory norms or can be disclosed only with the permission of the person to whom it concerns, was studied. The article also analyzes the expressed positions of scientists regarding the role of a witness in civil proceedings and the status of a witness, which is characterized by the presence of witness immunity. Based on the presented material, the author concluded that witness immunity is a means of ensuring the protection of the private interests of a person who, as a witness, has the duty to provide information in court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the place and role of a witness in the criminal procedure of Ukraine. It is established that a witness plays an extremely important role in ensuring a prompt, complete and impartial investigation. By taking an active position, witnesses can provide significant assistance in improving the effectiveness of such actions. The «power» of a witness lies in the «strength» of his or her testimony, in the ability to influence a decision in favor of the party involved in the case. In different time periods, the «power» of witness testimony, which directly depended on the witness's place in society, changed, it had different explanations and legislative regulation. This dependence is so deeply rooted in social psychology that it still has a significant impact on judicial practice. The procedural activity of a witness in criminal proceedings is a prerequisite for clarifying all the circumstances of a criminal offense during the pre-trial investigation and for the court to make a lawful, reasonable and fair judgment. From the theoretical point of view, a witness belongs to the group of subjects of criminal procedure who facilitate the criminal justice process. The author offers her own definition of the category «witness» which should be contained in Part 1 of Article 65 of the CPC of Ukraine: «A witness is a person who may be aware of any information about the circumstances relevant to criminal proceedings and subject to proof, and who is involved in the process as a witness in accordance with the procedure established by law». Thus, not every person who knows or may know the circumstances to be proved in criminal proceedings is a witness, but only the one who is called as a witness to testify. The study proves that witnesses participate not only in interrogation; they may also participate in other investigative (detective) actions while maintaining their procedural status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the provisions of the Procedure for Implementation of the Pilot Project for the Implementation of International Standards for Child-Friendly Justice in Practice, which formulated 100 standards relating to proceedings involving minors. The author classifies these standards in terms of their correlation with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. Particular attention is paid to a childfriendly environment, as well as to interrogation, examination and collection of biological samples, and participation of a psychologist in procedural actions. The author considers video recording during investigative (detective) actions with the participation of a minor (victim, suspect) with his/her consent. The author analyses the conduct of examinations with the participation of a child, in particular, the possibilities of limiting the child's participation in this research, except in situations of necessity, as provided for in the Procedure for Implementing the Pilot Project for the Implementation of International Standards for Child-Friendly Justice in Practice. It is concluded that the provisions of the Procedure are: 1) detailing the general rights of the victim in criminal proceedings in the context of the best interests of the child and 2) prescribing actions that are not mandatory in the CPC of Ukraine, but are in line with international child rights standards. Despite the undoubted progressive nature of the procedure for ensuring the best interests of the child, there are provisions that may cause different interpretations and applications. In particular, the provision of Standard 26 does not correlate with Part 2 and Part 7 of Article 55 of the CPC of Ukraine; it is not defined in what status a psychologist should be questioned; the form of the psychologist's recommendations needs to be clarified. The application of the high standard of «reliable information and obvious grounds» for the appointment of a psychiatric examination may lead to the non-appointment of an examination if the mental illness or mental retardation is not obvious and the information about it is undoubted. In addition, the provision of Standard 38 needs to be clarified, as its wording suggests that in case of voluntary action, the participation of a legal representative is not required, and such an interpretation contradicts Article 227 of the CPC of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article determines that, at first glance, the legal regulation of the activities of an advocate in criminal proceedings is well regulated, complies with international standards and does not require any adjustment. The article determines that, at first glance, the legal regulation of the activities of an advocate in criminal proceedings is sufficiently regulated, complies with international standards and does not require any adjustment. However, as practice shows, many problems arise in the implementation of criminal procedural law based on conflicts and gaps in it. Among them, a major place is occupied by the problems of defense, representation and other types of professional legal assistance to participants in criminal proceedings by an advocate. The article examines the state of legal regulation of participation of an advocate in criminal proceedings to provide professional legal assistance to the participants of such proceedings. The authors analyze the absence of the right of the victim and his/her representative to engage an expert in criminal proceedings on contractual terms, other restrictions on the rights of the victim and his or her representative to collect evidence, the right to review the pre-trial investigation materials before its completion, no right to receive a copy of the notice of suspicion and indictment, no right to file a request to the investigating judge for temporary access to things or documents, as well as the right to appeal against a preventive measure applied to a suspect/accused on the grounds of its leniency, etc. The article also analyzes the rights of a representative of a civil plaintiff or a civil defendant in criminal proceedings in relation to the rights provided for by the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, the author draws attention to the need to provide representation for another owner or possessor of property in legal relations regarding the right to file a petition to cancel the arrest of property in whole or in part, and considers the procedural status of a witness’s advocate and a whistleblower’s advocate. The article proposes amendments to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine in the context of legal regulation of participation of an advocate in criminal proceedings to provide professional legal assistance to the participants of such proceedings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to he study of the peculiarities of witness testimony as a source of evidence in criminal proceedings. It has been established that the testimony of persons who have certain information about the circumstances of a criminal offense is the most important procedural means by which the establishment of the circumstances of the event is ensured. The issue of the location of witness testimony in a criminal trial has been revealed. The thesis is defended that the achievement of the objectives of criminal proceedings can only take place when it is based on high-quality evidential material, which means admissible, proper and reliable evidence, in compliance with all requirements for the evaluation of evidence. In turn, the very process of evaluating witness testimony should be complex in nature and include all the circumstances related to the witness and his testimony, as one of the most frequent types of evidence. The essential properties of the testimony of the witness, the totality of which forms the content and form of this type of evidence, are highlighted: the information is an oral or written message; the source of information is a person endowed with the procedural status of a witness; the information is important for this criminal proceeding; compliance with the requirements of the legislation is ensured when receiving and processing information. The proposed author's definition of the term "testimony" is information provided orally or in writing to suspects, accused, witnesses, victims, and experts regarding the circumstances known to them in criminal proceedings, which are significant for this criminal proceeding, recorded in the proper order. It is concluded that this definition takes into account all the essential features of the testimony, including those provided by the witness. It has been established that statements often appear as a result of procedural actions that are not related to interrogations, and are recorded in the case materials as elements of various protocols of investigative (search) actions, minutes of a court session, etc. It is proposed to exclude from the legislative definition the mention of obtaining testimony only during interrogation; thus, the content of the norm is expanded, its perception and understanding is facilitated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the terminological problems of legal regulation of the questioning of medical workers as witnesses in criminal proceedings. For this purpose, the criminal procedural norms regulating the questioning of a medical worker in the status of a witness, as well as the provisions of the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Fundamentals of Ukrainian legislation on health protection, and secondary regulatory legal acts (Rules for prescribing prescriptions for medicinal products and medical products, Instructions on the work of departments (groups, sectors, senior inspectors) monitoring the execution of court decisions of penal institutions and remand prisons, the Procedure for the provision of medical care to those sentenced to imprisonment, the Rules of Internal Procedure of remand prisons of the State Criminal Enforcement Service of Ukraine). It was established that Clause 4, Part 2, Art. 65 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine) of medical workers who, in connection with the performance of professional or official duties, became aware of an illness, medical examination, examination and their results, intimate and family aspects of a person's life - about information, which constitute a medical secret, it is not allowed to be questioned as witnesses. In such a case, interrogation is possible on the condition that the medical worker is released from the obligation to keep professional secrecy by the person who entrusted them with this information, to the extent determined by him. It was found that, as of today, in Ukrainian legislation, the term «medical worker» is contained in several subordinate legal acts, and their content is not the same; the term «medical secrecy» is not formally defined, and such a component of the term «medical secrecy» as «intimate and family aspects of a person's life» is not defined either in the criminal procedural law or in any other regulatory legal acts. Conclusions were made about the need to improve the conceptual apparatus in terms of regulating the questioning of medical workers as witnesses by unifying and specifying the terms «medical worker» and «medical confidentiality», as well as making changes to Clause 4, Part 2 of Art. 65 further - CCP of Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminal procedure code is to provide prosecution of anybody who has commited a crime according to the level of being guilty. Temporary criminal procedure rules for the judges, prosecutors and investigators of Kyiv in 1942 had the same aim and were created by the Kiev city government to manage judicial branch of power. The city court and General provisions were paid much attention. Judicial sitting and pre–trial procedure were considered in detail. At the same time the document lacks logical consequence and has some repetitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's economic process is characterized by many novelties, including the expanded list of evidence to establish the circumstances of a case. One of the innovations is the institute of witnesses, and it has been ambiguously assessed by scientists and legal practitioners and raised the question of its overall appropriateness and the rationality of its use particularly in the economic process. The above-said necessitates a systematic analysis of statutory regulation of witness's participation in the economic process with a view to assessing whether it is expedient to introduce this institute into the process and what its shortcomings are in terms of standardization, and also for the purpose of identifying the specifics of this institute by its comparison with regulation of a similar institute used in civil and administrative processes. The purpose of the article is to make a systematic and comparative analysis of the institute of witnesses in the economic process, to identify and find the ways to overcome the shortcomings present in legislative regulation, to substantiate the appropriateness of introduction of the institute of witnesses into today's economic process, and also to present the author's own approaches to the procedure of a witness's participation in the economic process. The study comprises a systematic analysis of the institute of witnesses in the economic process, identifies certain shortcomings of legislative regulation and formulates proposals for its improvement. The author determines the specifics pertaining to regulation of the institute of witnesses in situations when conflicts under economic law are resolved, on the basis of a comparative analysis of statutory regulation in the economic, civil and administrative processes. The author analyzes the appropriateness and provides rationale for the introduction of the institute of witnesses into today's economic process of Ukraine. The study findings present the author's conclusion that the novel of the economic process - introduction of the institute of witnesses has a favorable impact. Thus, this institute ensures completeness of evidence and expands the list of available means of proof in the economic process. However, the use of witness's testimony as a secondary source of evidence is still decisive, since it allows, on the one part, using witness's testimony in case other means of proof are insufficient, and on the other part, such testimony may not be taken into account as evidence in case there is other appropriate evidence to confirm certain circumstances relevant to the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Law of Ukraine is the property of Editorial Board of Journal "Law of Ukraine" and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)