“Legal conclusions” of experts in the Russian judicial proceedings

Abstract

The authors analyze the problems of using so-called legal examinations in various types of legal proceedings and research these problems in specialized literature. With the unanimous recognition, in theory and in practice, of the fact that legal knowledge is not special in the sense of any procedural law, this issue is highly controversial in the literature: all authors supply their denial of the use of expert opinions and legal experts with such reservations as to make its negation unequivocal. Judicial practice is also controversial and varies considerably in different branches of justice: the same issues may be considered by different courts as legal, or they may not apply. The authors come to the conclusion that it is inadmissible and harmful for justice to put before the experts and specialists in any legal issues: they clutter up legal procedures with excessive actions and documents and entail a rise in the cost of justice. Refs 4.