The place of prejudicial facts in the process of criminal procedural evidence

Abstract

The article is devoted to the investigation of an important element of criminal procedural evidence - the prejudicial facts. The term "prejudice" in procedural science means "the solution of the question beforehand; a decision made in advance; circumstances that allow us to draw conclusions about the consequences". Prejudice, as a legal phenomenon, was entrenched by Roman lawyers who, through certain legal actions, created court decisions in order to apply them in a future case. Ultimately, the prejudice of France and Germany took shape, which in the future made it possible to implement the prejudice in the jurisprudence of European states. The value of a prejudice is multifaceted, it can be considered as a factual fact; as a fact established by the court; as a conclusion made by one court and binding on another court; as intellectual-willful activity on proving; as a property of particular legal phenomena; as a technique of legal technique. Prejudice has a lot in common with a legal category such as precedent, but the main difference is that the precedent applies to the whole legal process, and the prejudice is only realized in the sphere of evidence. The article also explored the place of prejudice in the subject of proof. Unlike the evidence which is the subject of proof, the prejudicial facts have already passed the procedural order of proving: collection, verification and evaluation, as well as the relevant conclusions, which were reflected in the court decision. When applying the prejudicial facts in the process of proving, these facts will also pass the stages of collection, research and evaluation, but with certain differences from the evidence. Prejudice is a cross-industry category. The rules of civil, economic and administrative processes also contain rules for the application of prejudicial facts, which have certain differences from the rules of criminal proceedings. Rules of civil procedural, commercial procedural and administrative justice exempt the parties from the obligation to prove the prejudicial facts, and the rules of criminal procedural law stipulate that the prejudicial ruling for the court that decides the admissibility of the evidence is decided by a national court or international court. The article also outlined the characteristic features of prejudice.