Review

The norm of law, which is enshrined in Part 1 of Art. 63 of the Constitution of Ukraine, is a guarantee of human rights and freedoms in criminal proceedings. It is not only implemented in domestic legislation as a generally accepted international standard, but also applied by the European Court of Human Rights and Ukrainian courts.

In the practice of the ECHR, the right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination is one of the constituents of the right to a fair trial, and its indication in motive parts of court decisions is a necessary element of their quality.

On the basis of the investigation of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and domestic courts, the author of the article aims at carrying out an analytical review of judicial decisions on the right to remain silent and freedom from self-incrimination.

The article, based on the analysis of the literary sources and practices of the European Court of Human Rights, highlights the different approaches of the Court to the application of the right to silence and freedom from self-incrimination. In particular, an example is given of the use of the principle of ensuring a certain freedom of national discretion in the casual interpretation of the absence of violation of Art. 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. There is also an analysis of the decisions of the Ukrainian courts, in motivational parts of which the reference to the practice of the ECHR is used.

As a result of the research, it is concluded that the legal position of the ECHR, in terms of the right to remain silent and freedom from self-incrimination, relates only to the suspect, the accused and the convicted person. In fact, within the decisions of the ECHR and the judgments of domestic courts, the right to remain silent and not to testify against oneself is complementary to the right to help the counsel. It has been established that within the practices of both, the ECHR and the Ukrainian courts, the right to remain silent and freedom from self-incrimination is not an absolute one. What is more, the use of the legal position of the ECHR in the motive parts of the decrees and sentences significantly increases the quality of the court decision in criminal proceedings.

References

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