NATURE, IMPORTANCE AND LIMITS OF FINDING THE TRUTH IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS
NATURE, IMPORTANCE AND LIMITS OF FINDING THE TRUTH IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyzes reasonable possibilities of finding the truth in modern criminal proceedings. Instead of the often uncritical, and sometimes even populist referring to the so-called principle of “material truth” as the main objective of criminal proceedings in continental legal tradition, the authors point out that the nature, importance and limits of finding the truth in criminal proceedings must be perceived in relation to other values included in the modern procedure, such as the presumption of innocence, adversary principle, equality of arms, the rules in dubio pro reo etc. Therefore, in a brief overview of the relevant philosophical movements, the authors first point out that the very notion of truth, which is inevitably philosophical, is inaccessible and enigmatic. It is highlighted that referring to the truth as an objective which should be reached in criminal proceedings is often a specific alibi for many open issues inherent to the system of criminal justice coercion. It is specifically highlighted that due to its “normative” nature, judicial truth inevitably differs from scientific, philosophical, ethical or aesthetic truth, and that under the modern circumstances it also has a number of “rivals” in the form of the value of criminal procedure it must be harmonized with. The authors believe that modern criminal procedure is most appropriately demonstrated in the so-called “adversary” model of process which is a unique mixture of solutions taken from the two major legal systems.

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