Dankova S. Criminal procedural proving in judicial proceedings in the first instance

The dissertation is one of the first in domestic criminal procedural science of special complex studies of theoretical and applied problems of implementation of criminal procedural proving in judicial proceedings in the first instance. The paper examines scientific positions on the essence of proving in criminal proceedings and states that proving is an activity that organically combines two aspects – cognitive and practical activity of collecting, checking, evaluating of evidence and logical and intellectual activity of formulating and justifying of a certain thesis, conclusion, assertion. Criminal procedural proving is a combination of evidence-cognition and proving-justification. It was determined that criminal procedural proving in judicial proceedings in the first instance is a cognitive-practical and logical-intellectual activity of participants of judicial proceedings and the court regulated by criminal procedural law, which consists of the formation, research and evaluation of evidence, as well as their further use for the purpose of establishing circumstances relevant to criminal proceedings, defense of the legal positions of the participants of judicial proceedings and adoption of legal, substantiated and motivated court decisions. It is justified that proving in the proceedings in the court of first instance should not be considered as a continuation of the proving that took place at the stage of the pre-trial investigation; it is an independent phenomenon, which is characterized by a specific structure, which is different from the model proposed by the legislator in Part 2 of Art. 91 of the CPC of Ukraine. The structure of criminal procedural proving in judicial proceedings in the first instance includes four interrelated and mutually determined elements – formation, research, evaluation and use of evidence. The dissertation examines the process of formation and development of the institution of criminal procedural proving in judicial proceedings in the first instance on the territory of Ukraine in different periods and in the composition of other states. The development of this institution was determined by the prevailing form of criminal justice. It was determined that the subjects of proving in judicial proceedings in the first instance are state bodies and persons who have a certain material or procedural interest in judicial proceedings and carry out cognitive-practical and logical-intellectual actions regarding the formation, research and evaluation of evidence, as well as their further use for the purpose of establishing circumstances that are important for criminal proceedings, defending the legal positions of the participants of judicial proceedings and making legal, substantiated and motivated court decisions.