THE METHODOLOGY OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTATION

The paper considers the issues of methodological support of the procedure of public documenting. The author defines public documenting as the procedure for collecting and recording of the information about an event that caused the public interest. The public commission is called an entity of public documenting. The result of this procedure is based on the application of special knowledge and thus matches the criteria of judicial procedure. The result can be used as well to justify the legislative decisions taken by the state authorities. The methodological basis of public documenting consists of special methods of study. They are used by specialists who have an interest in the public entity. Knowledge learned through special research meets the scientific criterion. The author considered the content and structure of special cognition acquired during public documenting and defined the method of public documenting as the system of principles and techniques using which the objective knowledge of an event is achieved. The role of research technology in the procedure is highlighted. Scientific nature of special knowledge provides the objectivity of the results of public documenting. The materials of public documenting meet the criteria applicable to the judicial evidence. The applicability of case-method to the methodology of public documenting is defined. The author identifies the features of an object and the entity of specified methods, shows the specificity of public documenting, and substantiates the scientific nature and objectivity of public documenting. The paper considers the example of public documenting of the events with the attributes of military crimes and the extremist acts on the territory of a self-identified state. The author demonstrates the objectivity and reliability of its result. During the documenting procedure, wide special knowledge is applied to study various types of traces of the crime. The author concretizes the methodology of such research and notes that the experts of forensic institutions carried out special research. Due to the scientific nature, the results of public documenting can be taken as the judicial evidence.