Law / Forensic science and forensic medicine

Master student 2nd year, A. V. Bashlykina

Taganrog Institute of management and Economics, Russia

Legal regulation of expert studies: the history of the issue

The use of special knowledge for the purposes of the proceedings has a long history. Initial stage of judicial examination should be connected with the appearance of the first written legal monuments. They made a prototype for future statutory regulation of the use of special knowledge in the proceedings, order the production of forensic examinations, their genera and species, the rights and duties of expert, etc. However, attracting knowledgeable people to participate in the proceedings in practice occurred to many before, as indicated by extant historical sources.

Raised to solve those or other questions people were specialists in various fields of scientific knowledge. For example, a court physician of Entity conducted the examination of the body of Julius Caesar and found that it was 23 received wounds from which are fatal, according to the doctor, turned out to be a second wound in the chest. Preserved expert assignment one of the first extant forensic examinations, obtained from Pope innocent III (1209), whose goal was the elucidation of the question of causing death by killing the thief - caused death was the one who hit the killed grave with the spade.

The first legislative acts in the field of criminal process, in which expertise is not only mentioned, but regulated, are: Carolina, a Great criminal Ordinance of Louis XIV and Teresiana. In Russia the emergence of forensic medical examination should be attributed to the XVI century, in 1535 the doctor Theophilus on behalf of the Empress Helena made a specific examination of Prince Andrei Staritsky about suspicions in the simulation of disease. A forensic examination at the legislative level gets the regulation of the Military Charter of Peter I, which established the need to attract physicians to study injuries on the body of the victim and determine the cause of his death.

In the XVI - XVII centuries there took place the emergence of another type of expertise - forensic. Researchers of the past of Russian psychiatry note that in pre-Petrine Russia in XVI - XVII centuries, and to some extent in more recent times, the main centers of psychiatric care and conduct examinations in this field of medicine were the monasteries. The mentally ill were sent to the monasteries not only for their charity, but also to identify mental illness in order to establish criminal liability.

At the legislative level psychiatric examination in Russia begins its regulation of the Decree of April 6, 1722 "On the testimony of fools in the Senate". The emergence of this legislation was caused by the evasion of some children of the nobility from learning and public service under the guise of foolishness and dementia from birth, and the need to detect these mentally ill in noble families. Crazy, first, was a danger to others, and, secondly, could not properly manage their estates.

A study of the handwriting in the court order been affirmed in the times of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (V - VI centuries). In the sources of Roman law preserved information about the big art experts, their ability to notice the subtle forgery of documents, setting the Statute of limitations, materials letters and invalidity of the seals. In Russia in the early sixteenth century knowledgeable persons were conducted examinations of documents to establish their authenticity and examined the handwriting and signature.

Counterfeiting at all times was considered as the gravest crime against the state. As pointed out by the researchers, one of the oldest laws establishing punishment for counterfeiting is the act Cornelia on forgery of wills and of coin (IV century BC). This normative act provided for the expulsion from the country for damage to coins. Attempts to establish the composition of metal coins and articles of precious metals known since ancient times. One of the most famous first experts-metallurgists was Archimedes, who according to legend was able to determine how much gold was contained in the crown. The discovery of Archimedes allowed not only to fulfil its expert task, but also to formulate one of the basic laws of hydrostatics.

To assistance and support scientists in the cases against counterfeiters resorted later. In the beginning of XVIII century the position of superintendent, and then Manager of the Mint of England was occupied by Isaac Newton. Undoubted organizational talent, diligence and a scientific approach to their duties, as well as the honesty of the scientist not only made it possible to carry out a monetary reform in the country in the shortest possible time, but also significantly reduce the number of false coins circulated at that time in England. The great physicist was personally involved in dozens of investigations and about 100 counterfeiters with it, were hunted down and convicted.

Thus, in the beginning of XVIII century the legislation both in Russia and abroad were subject to forensic medical examination, forensic psychiatric examination, handwriting examination and examination of documents. At the same time applied research in the judicial order, related to the toxicology and science, which has found its legislative consolidation later.

The formation of the Institute of legal expertise is closely connected not only with the development of jurisprudence, but also with the development of separate branches of science. The low level of technical and scientific knowledge is still nascent classical science in a few limited possibilities and the number of examinations of this period. The emergence and development of new genera and species assessments was uneven, and their legislative regulation lagged far behind the practice of production.