| Abstract [eng] |
The master’s thesis analyzes the topic insufficiently disclosed in Lithuania’s legal doctrine “Peculiarities of Evidentiary Proceedings in Criminal Cases of Crimes Committed by a Legal Person”, examining significant legal acts, conclusions in the doctrine drawn by scholars, and clarifications provided in court practice. Considering it is crucial to compare each legal institution, its theoretical aspects, and practical functioning with foreign countries, the analysis of this topic also provides differences and similarities of the institution in question, occurring not only in Lithuania but in neighboring Latvia, which, due to its similarity to Lithuania (at the micro-level), is a highly suitable country for comparison. The paper analyzes the historical development of the institution of proving in Lithuania and explains the concept of evidentiary proceedings. However, the chosen topic is mostly revealed by analyzing the peculiarities of evidentiary proceedings in criminal cases of crimes committed by a legal person in both pre-trial and judicial investigation. This approach was chosen because evidentiary proceedings begin in a pre-trial investigation, and the truth under particular circumstances will be established only when all the necessary data are collected during pre-trial investigation, which later on, during the court proceedings, will become judicial evidence, that will form the basis of a conviction against a legal person. The analysis of the evidentiary proceedings of crimes committed by a legal person is also equally important to the research, which consists of two stages: the investigation of data collected, submitted, or requested by the court during the judicial proceedings, and the recognition of data as evidence and their evaluation. After analyzing the topic of the paper, differences and similarities of the evidentiary proceedings of crimes committed by a legal person (during pre-trial and judicial investigation) in Lithuania and Latvia were identified. After reviewing them, it can be stated that the Lithuanian legislation, in terms of criminal liability of a legal person, is more advanced than it is in Latvia. |
