Review

The article presents a doctrinal and comparative reconstruction of the evolution of the theory of evidence in the 19th and early 20th centuries within the Anglo-American, German, French (Romance), Austro-Hungarian, and Russian imperial traditions, based on pre-revolutionary sources (up to 1917). The purpose of the study is to obtain an integral and verifiable result – a doctrinal and comparative reconstruction of the evolution of the theory of evidence in the 19th and early 20th centuries within the above-mentioned legal schools, with conclusions regarding their influence on the contemporary models of evidence law in the United States, continental Europe, and Ukraine.

The methodology combines comparative-historical and structural-doctrinal analysis using a unified «matrix» (concept, properties, classifications, correlation between evidence and indicia, method and standard of assessment, purpose of evidence), with intra- and inter-systemic comparison of authors’ positions and their institutional contexts. Additionally, a periodization is formulated that reflects the successive intellectual and procedural steps from the rationalist program to codified standards of proof and procedural roles.

The results obtained include: (1) a reasoned transition to the model of inner conviction as a publicly motivated practical readiness of the court to act; (2) a coherent system of criteria of evidentiary fitness (relevance, admissibility, reliability/sufficiency) and their operational application to direct and circumstantial data; (3) the interpretation of the «best evidence rule» as a methodology of immediacy with explained and verifiable exceptions; (4) the logic of «harmony of totality» as a sufficiency standard for indirect evidence; (5) institutional safeguards against arbitrariness in assessment (publicity, orality, immediacy, cross-examination, record discipline).

The influence of the classical doctrine on the modern theory of digital (electronic) evidence is substantiated separately: the priority of primary machine records and metadata, the requirement of an unbroken chain of custody, explained and reproducible deviations from primacy, transparent expert examination within competence, and the evaluation of digital datasets by the criterion of internal coherence and elimination of reasonable alternatives.

The scientific novelty lies in combining historical and doctrinal reconstruction with clear applied guidelines for digital proof (checklists of primacy, authenticity, reproducibility, and motivation of judicial reasoning). The practical significance is seen in the possibility of using the proposed «matrix» to unify judicial argumentation, develop procedural standards for working with electronic media, and enhance the reproducibility of judicial decisions. The deliberate limitation of the source base to pre-revolutionary works ensures the purity of comparative analysis and allows for accurately tracing the continuity of classical principles under modern conditions of digital transformation of justice.

Keywords: doctrine of evidence; relevance; admissibility; reliability; sufficiency; inner conviction; best evidence rule; circumstantial evidence; publicity; immediacy; cross-examination; expert opinion; digital evidence; metadata; chain of custody; harmony of totality; comparative legal analysis; pre-trial and trial proceedings.