Constitutional model of criminal procedure evidence: doctrinal categories, the phenomenon of procedural toxicity and the role of the Supreme Court in shaping evidentiary standards
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The article is devoted to the formation of a constitutional model of criminal procedure evidence in Ukraine through the prism of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and the case law of the Supreme Court. It is argued that under the influence of constitutional jurisdiction, the basic categories of the law of evidence (evidence, admissibility, inadmissibility, relevance, reliability, and the judge’s inner conviction) undergo a substantive transformation: from a formally procedural to a materially constitutional understanding. The article reveals the phenomenon of “procedural toxicity” as a consequence of systemic violations of human rights at the early stages of criminal proceedings, which “contaminate” the entire body of evidence and lead to the inadmissibility of both primary and derivative evidence. The role of the Supreme Court as an institutional transmitter of constitutional standards into the sphere of proof is demonstrated; it shapes the national version of the doctrine of the “fruit of the poisonous tree”, the doctrine of procedural integrity, and the dual (code-based and constitutional) standard of admissibility. Special attention is paid to digital evidence and modern technologies of information recording, in particular electronic communications data, the results of covert investigative (search) actions, the use of platforms such as EncroChat, and artificial intelligence in proof. It is shown that their admissibility cannot be determined solely by technical reliability or informational value, but must be assessed through the prism of constitutional guarantees of privacy, protection of personal data, the right to a fair trial and effective judicial control. It is substantiated that, for digital evidence, particular importance attaches to such criteria as transparency of origin, reproducibility, integrity of the chain of custody, and the possibility of full-scale verification by the defence. The author develops an integral concept of the “constitutional model of criminal procedure evidence”, centred on the rule of law, human rights, judicial independence, the active role of the defence, and the priority of substantive justice over mere formal correctness of the process. It is concluded that the legitimacy of proof in modern criminal proceedings is determined not only by compliance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, but primarily by the constitutional purity of the origin and assessment of evidence, which opens up further prospects for the development of the national doctrine of the law of evidence.
Author: M. A. Pohoretskyi
Language: English
Topic: Criminal Law and Evidence
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7127078375