On the legal regulation of recognizing inadmissible the evidence in administrative violation cases

Evidence is vitally important in the proceedings on administrative violation cases, which allows identifying the signs of the constituent elements of an offense and reaching the truth. In this regard, it is important to collect evidence in strict accordance with the norms of the law. The institution of inadmissible evidence serves this purpose. At the same time, based on a comparative analysis of the provisions of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the author concludes on the insufficiency of legal regulation of this institution in the current legislation on administrative offenses. The paper formulates two hypotheses that may cause this problem: the presence of a gap in the law (“real gap”) or the case of the legislator’s intentional silence (“imaginary gap”). The author emphasizes the possibility and necessity to regulate the relations associated with the recognition of evidence in administrative violation cases as inadmissible. It is stated that the importance of the institution of inadmissible evidence in the proceedings on administrative violation cases excludes the possibility of the legislator’s qualified silence. Based on the above arguments, the author substantiates the validity of the first hypothesis. While discussing the results of the study, issues requiring additional legal regulation are identified. The author proposes to include in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation a definition of the concept of inadmissible evidence, the additional legislative regulation in the norms of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation of cases of recognition as inadmissible of administrative offense protocols, the testimony of a victim and witnesses, as well as an evidence obtained during control and supervisory activities. In this regard, the author proposes supplementing the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation with Article 26.2.1 “Inadmissible Evidence”, which disposition, to the author’s opinion, can be constructed based on a similar norm of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, taking into account the specifics of administrative-delictual legislation.