Practice of European Court of Human Rights on the Expertise in Criminal Proceeding

Abstract

The article explores the case-law practice of the European Court on Human Rights regarding the assessment of the observance of the person’s right on the fair criminal proceedings, implying the use of the expert’s conclusion and his testimony as a means of proving the circumstances of the proceedings. The author assumes that the failure to conduct forensic examination in the Court proceedings can be interpreted as the failure of the State to conduct an effective investigation of the crime. The author summarizes upon the following: the approaches of the European Court on Human Rights to the criteria of expert’s competence or expert’s lack of interest in investigation of a crime; the importance of expert’s opinion in determining whether the person can speak in his own defense. It has been found out that by analogy the European Court on Human Rights ascertained the right of the parties to cross-examine the expert.