SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE IN LEGAL PROCEEDINGS: EPISTEMOLOGICAL ASPECT

Abstract

Based on the analysis of Ukrainian legislation, an acute problem
of the modern legal field is demonstrated in the form of the lack
of a normative definition of the definition of «specialized knowledge»
along with its active use at the level of laws as a criterion for the
qualification of individual participants in legal proceedings and the
appropriateness of the evidence obtained with their help. It is also
established that such legal uncertainty has led to the substitution of
concepts and the emergence of inappropriate legal procedures and
participants in legal proceedings, which gives rise to doubts about
the appropriateness and admissibility of certain evidence, and is
a violation of the general principles of legal proceedings and the
foundations of justice in general. The analysis of the relevant
norms of the legislation of Ukraine in the field of forensic expertise
allows us to separate knowledge from the field of law from
«specialized knowledge» and at the same time to determine such
an important characteristic of «specialized knowledge» as the
direction of their application – the field of legal proceedings,
which allows us to consider the subject-matter direction
of the application of knowledge as a certain point of transformation
of industry knowledge into special. In addition, it was found that the
formal moment of transformation of industry knowledge into
«specialized» is the procedure for attesting a person as a forensic
expert, determined by the relevant law. In connection with this,
the opinion is upheld that only a person certified as a forensic
expert in accordance with the Law of Ukraine «On Forensic
Expertise» can be considered by participants in legal proceedings
as having «specialized knowledge» necessary to establish factual
data about the circumstances of the case. And only such a person
can participate in various types of proceedings as an expert and as
a specialist in accordance with the procedure established in
procedural legislation, since the volume of «specialized knowledge»
cannot change, but only the conditions for involving persons who
have such knowledge and the results obtained with their help can
change. The general scientific methods of scientific knowledge
applied on the basis of a normative approach ensured the
achievement of the goal of the study – the development of
methodological foundations for a single substantiated approach
to determining the essence of «specialized knowledge», which will
serve as a criterion for determining the qualifications of certain
participants in legal proceedings and the relevance of the
evidence obtained with their help.