ANCIENT ORIGINS OF THE METHODOLOGY OF MODERN EVIDENCE LAW

Abstract

The course towards Ukraine's European integration provides for the harmonisation of national and European law, starting with the cultural and traditional foundations of the latter, laid down in the era of antiquity. In addition, according to the analysis of current issues in the field of modern evidence law, the main sources of methodological contradictions in approaches to its solution go back to their historical roots in this particular era. Accordingly, it seems appropriate to study the ancient origins of both the methodology of legal argumentation itself and the modern technique of its effective application. Moreover, these issues are still insufficiently investigated. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to identify those logical foundations of evidentiary reasoning that are the property of ancient thought and can be effectively used in the development of modern methods of legal evidence. Hermeneutical and comparative analysis methods were used to critically evaluate classical and modern methodological concepts in the field of evidence law, and to identify fundamental differences in the interpretation of goals, means, and methodological approaches to the construction of evidentiary procedures. When searching for ways to resolve contradictions between alternative methodological paradigms, each of which reveals both its own constructive points and some functional limitations, the method of dialectical synthesis is applied, which provides for rational integration of oppositely oriented approaches based on the principles of their relevant involvement and complementarity. Methods of deductive and logical analysis, as well as inductive generalisation, probabilistic and statistical estimates, and analogy were used to substantiate the results and formulate the conclusions of the study. Scientific originality. It is proved that the appeal to the logical and methodological foundations of rational thinking, formulated and systematised by ancient Greek scholars and technically used in the system of Roman law, opens up wide opportunities in terms of solving a number of topical problems of modern theory and practice of legal evidence. To solve the actual problems of the modern methodology of evidence law, it is advisable to retrospectively analyse its previous historical development, since this makes possible, first, to find out the essential causes of such problems from their very origins. Second, the proposed approach, being aimed at studying the logical and methodological foundations of the theory of legal argumentation, provides for the search for solutions to these problems at a fundamental level. In particular, turning to ancient sources of proof methodology will help solve many debatable issues of its modern development, among which the dilemma of the deductivist or probabilistic and statistical paradigm, the problem of criteria for the sufficiency of evidence, etc., are distinguished. The use of argumentative strategies based on basic logical criteria of rationality and evidence will help increase the degree of objectivity in the practice of making legal decisions, being an effective means of countering subjectivism in the course of their development