Electronic document as an independent means of proving in civil and administrative proceedings

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Abstract: The research subject is the provisions of the current legislation on electronic documents. The research object is particular problems connected with the procedure of obtaining and examining an electronic document in the context of its specificity. The author studies the aspects of the topic connected with the provision with the information contained on the hard disk of the computer, the study of the hard disk, and the recognition of correspondence via WhatsApp as inadmissible evidence. Particular attention is paid to the exclusion of an electronic document from the existing list of written evidence in civil and administrative proceedings. The author substantiates the consolidation of an open, non-exhaustive list of means of proving in civil and administrative proceedings. The author notes that in some normative legal acts the legislator somehow endues electronic documents with lower evidentiary strength compared with written evidence.The methodological basis of the study is represented by the following methods: the dialectical method of scientific cognition, the method of formal logic, the formal-legal method, the methods of analysis and synthesis, comparative legal, system and historical methods.The author defines the status of an electronic document in civil and administrative proceedings, formulates the proposals for formalization of an open list of evidence in article 59 of the Administrative Procedure Rules and at adoption of Chapter 6 of the Unified Сode of civil procedure. A special contribution of the author to the research of the topic is substantiation of exclusion of an electronic document from the list of written evidence in the Civil Procedure Code, the Arbitration Procedure Code and the Administrative Procedure Rules. Provisions of part 3 article 75 of the Arbitration Procedure Code and parts 1.1 article 70 of Administrative Procedure Rules should be taken into account when adopting the Unified Civil Procedure Code and amending the Administrative Procedure Rules. Special reasons and procedure of adoption of electronic documents as evidence should result in the special procedure of their examination, different from the procedure of examination of written evidences.