The Burden of Proving in the Criminal Procedure of the Main European States

The article contains a summary of the theoretical and legal aspects of foreign criminal procedure law (using the examples of Germany, France and Italy) related to the legal phenomenon of «burden of proof». Conclusions are formulated that: the criminal procedural law of these states assesses the legal phenomenon «the burden of proof» as an integral part of the principle of the presumption of innocence; the admissibility of the transfer of the burden of proof of certain circumstances of the criminal case from the prosecution to the defense is admitted, while the grounds and scope of such transfer vary from minimal (Germany) to fairly broad (France); the grounds for shifting the burden of proof are: the provision for this action by the criminal law or other special laws that establish criminal liability for the commission of certain unlawful acts; the formulation of the objective side of the crime by the criminal law in a way that implies the guilty commission of an act (for example, carrying a firearm or cold weapon without a permit); introduction into the criminal proceedings by the defense side of evidence favorable to the defendant, including the statement that the latter committed an act while in an unusual mental state or under unusual circumstances; unlike the prosecution, the defense generally fulfills the burden of proof in accordance with the «reasonable doubt» standard of the prosecution’s arguments.