The place of discovery in the system of American and English criminal procedure: historical and legal analysis

Abstract

This paper discusses the legal nature of the disclosure of evidence in English and American criminal proceedings — an institution that attracts special attention
of researchers due to the lack of direct continental analogues and its importance as a
procedural safeguard. In order to establish the place of the criminal discovery in the
Anglo-American system of criminal procedure, its genesis in the course of the procedural transformations of the 17th-19th centuries is researched. Author concludes that its
appearance is a consequence of the elimination of “prosecutorial bias”, created by socalled “lawyerisation”. By researching jurisprudence of the courts, statutory regulation
and doctrine, author finds that the main function of criminal discovery is to supply the
court with facts of the case. Taking into account the absence of judicial activity of the jury
in the Anglo-American criminal process, it would be impossible to make a correct decision on the merits of the case without disclosing the materials of the parties to each other

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