THE LEGAL ESSENCE OF THE ELECTRONIC EVIDENCE IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE: A BRIEF COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL AND LEGAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The purpose of the scientific paper is to explore the foreign and national historical preconditions and the logic of the development of the sub-institute of electronic evidence, with a primary focus on the administrative proceeding in Ukraine, based on the documented factual data of different periods. Considering the theoretical nature of the present research, the main research methods used in the course of its preparation are as follows: combination of historical and logical, systematic method, methods of comparison, description, generalization, synthesis and induction, convergence from general to local. As a result of the research the main trends of the development of the sub-institute of electronic evidence in the administrative proceeding during different historical periods were studied, with a special emphasis on the foreign pre-history of the emergence and the development of the legal provisions related to electronic evidence. Key findings (conclusions) of the study are briefly summarized below. The legal provisions on electronic evidence have been subject to numerous amendments beginning from the 1970th, when they were firstly implemented in the procedural legislation in United States of America. Considering the fact that the matter of periodization is always an open question, in the author’s view the historical development of the regulation regarding electronic evidence may be divided into four main periods: 1) From the 1970th to the early 1990th (this period is related to the emergence of the first national cases of specific legislation, forensic practices and scientific researches); 2) From the 1970th to the early 2000th (when the transformation of the approaches to the understanding of the electronic evidence’s essence happened, and the issue on the autonomous role of electronic evidence within the system of evidence was raised); 3) From 2000 to 2010 (this period is associated with the active development of the legislation and the legal practice on the electronic evidence); 4) From 2010 till nowadays ( this is the present stage of the legal provisions on the electronic evidence’s development, when a special definition and procedural rules for electronic evidence were implemented into the national procedural codes, including the Code of the Administrative Procedure of Ukraine).