Hearing at Distance in Civil and Criminal Proceedings of the Ukraine

Abstract

Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine and Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine have been analized. Only one article – 158-1 of Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine devoted to the use of videoconference.As for the criminal proceedings, the adoption of Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine on April 13, 2012 was a decisive step in the implementation of videoconference. The Code contains Article 232 «Interrogation, identification by videoconference during pre-trial investigation», Article 336 «Conductingprocedural actions by videoconference during the hearing» and Article 567 «Interrogation for foreign competent authority through video or telephone conference». Thus, considering a large number of cases (over 3.5 million cases per year), introduction of new technologies, including videoconference, certainly is positive. And despite the fact that there are some imperfections, gaps in the legal regulation of hearing at distance, the benefits of videoconference implementation is much higher. The admissibility of this technology provides international and national regulations, confirmed by good practice of other countries and of the European Court of Human Rights.