Standards for Admissibility of Hearsay: Normative Enshrining and Application Practice

The article is devoted to the generalization of standards for admissibility of hearsay, which are enshrined in the rules of criminal procedural law and found their application in court’s practice, and to the disclosure of the content of these standards.

Based on the analysis of norms of the article 97 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine and the jurisprudence of national courts formed on this basis the system of standards for admissibility of hearsay include: 1) a hearsay can be recognized as admissible evidences in exceptional cases and provided that they are admissible evidences in accordance with other rules of admissibility of evidences (part 2 of article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine); 2) a hearsay can be recognized as admissible evidences regardless of the possibility to interrogate the person who provided the initial explanations (part 2 of article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine); 3) a hearsay is subject to admission as inadmissible evidences in cases where they are not supported by other evidences declared as admissible in accordance with rules other than provisions of part 2 of article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine (part 6 of article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine); 4) a hearsay can be recognized as admissible evidences in cases where a suspect, an accused has created or facilitated the creation of circumstances in which a person cannot be questioned (part 5 of article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine); 5) a hearsay is subject to admission as inadmissible evidences in cases where they are provided by an investigator, a prosecutor, an officer of the operational unit or another person regarding explanations of persons provided to an investigator, a prosecutor or an officer of the operational unit during criminal proceedings (part 7 of article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine).

The attention is drawn to the fact that the original wording of the criminal procedural law the standard of admissibility of a hearsay, according to which it could be recognized as admissible evidences in cases where the parties agree to admit their evidences was installed (part 4 article 97 of the CPC of Ukraine). It is stated that this standard of admissibility of a hearsay widely used in the jurisprudence of national courts, but was excluded from the CPC of Ukraine on the basis of the Law of Ukraine dated 04 October 2019 № 187-IX.

According to the results of the conducted research, it is substantiated the expediency of making amendments to the CPC of Ukraine regarding the regulation of the admissibility of a hearsay.

Taking into account approaches expressed in the doctrine of criminal process and existing jurisprudence of national courts, indicates the necessary to clarify separate standards of admissibility of a hearsay.