| Abstract [eng] |
The master’s thesis analyses the questioning by a pre-trial judge. Analyses the legal regulation in Lithuania, which determines the conditions and procedure for questioning, conducted by a pre-trial judge, analyses the meaning and content of the relevant norms, considering the conclusions reached by Lithuanian scholars, and assesses the legal regulation in foreign countries regarding the questioning by a pre-trial judge. The questioning by this subject has an important evidentiary significance, since, if the procedural participant is absent from hearing, or if the testimony of the person being questioned is not considered reliable during the hearing, the testimony of the person being questioned by the pre-trial judge may be accepted as evidence, on the basis of which the court passes a sentence in the criminal proceedings. The paper starts by analysing the procedural status of the pre-trial judge, his or her powers and the peculiarities of the passive model of the pre-trial judge chosen in Lithuania. An analysis of the models of the pre-trial judge established in other countries and the powers of this judge operating therein is presented, noting that the competence of this judge in Lithuania is broader than in other countries that have adopted the passive model. The second part of the work analyses in detail the conditions and procedures for questioning by the pre-trial judge, which vary according to the age, the procedural status or other specific features of the person being questioned, and which allow for the testimony given to this judge to be considered evidence. Attention is drawn to the problematic aspects of this institution which are dealt with in the case law. The third part analyses, in the light of the explanations given by the Lithuanian courts, the evidentiary significance of the data, obtained during the questioning done by a pre-trial judge, which may make the testimony, read out at the trial, evidence. |
