Procedural capacity of use electronic (digital) information as evidence in criminal proceedings

Abstract

Law enforcement agencies and courts are increasingly investigating factual data (evidence) recorded in electronic (digital) form, which are stored on technical media. At the same time, the national criminal procedure legislation does not contain a clear definition of the term “electronic evidence”, which leads to ambiguous practices of their evaluation and use in the process of proving in the investigation of criminal offenses. The analysis of judicial practice also shows different approaches to assessing the relevance and admissibility of electronic evidence (factual data recorded in electronic (digital) form) in different types of proceedings. The article substantiates the need to define the category of “electronic evidence” in the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine and proposes the development of a new paradigm of electronic evidence theory.