PROVISION OF EVIDENCE IN CIVIL PROCEDURE OF UKRAINE: NORMATIVE REGULATION AND DOCTRINAL ASPECTS

Abstract

The article deals with evidence provision in Ukraine's civil proceedings. It outlines the main doctrinal issues and prospects of proof in this field of legal relations. It is noted that the task of civil proceedings directly depends on the ability to give the court the necessary evidence to adequately protect violated, unrecognised or disputed rights, freedoms or interests of individuals, rights and interests of legal entities, and interests of the State. The institution of providing evidence is a set of legal rules that govern the legal relations between the authorised body, the applicant and interested parties regarding the provision of evidence that is likely to be submitted to a court (or, in the case of notarised evidence, also to an administrative body) in the future. The provision of evidence means its immediate acceptance by the court, outside the admissibility conditions specified by law. The court has no right to refuse to secure the testimony, even if written evidence is required by law to prove the facts. Thus, based on the researchers' ideas about evidence, it can be assumed that providing evidence is primarily about preserving its content. The author emphasises that only those pieces of evidence finally assessed by the court and formed the basis of a court decision can be considered judicial evidence. That is, the existence of a link between the information about the facts contained in a particular piece of evidence and the fact is established by the court only after the final assessment of the evidence. That is why, when discussing the provision of evidence, we should speak of providing evidence that is not judicial but is only likely to have the characteristics of judicial evidence (proper procedural form, acquiring and examining it by the procedure provided for by law). It is concluded that the need to prove certain circumstances in considering and resolving civil cases directly relates to the possibility of submitting specific evidence to the court. Provision of judicial evidence is impossible in principle due to the following statements: 1) evidence is always secured before consideration of the case on the merits and adjudication; 2) the final assessment of evidence as to its relevance, admissibility, sufficiency, reliability, etc. is made by the court that considers the case and passes the decision.