Court decisions in criminal proceedings: information and analytical research tools

Themis procedural decisions have a huge impact on legal practice. Scientists, professors of law faculties, investigators, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, participants in criminal proceedings and society in general should have access to court decisions within the framework of the principle of publicity and openness of judicial proceedings (Clause 20, Part 1, Article 7, Article 27 of the Criminal Procedure Code). In this direction, two trends are present in modern conditions: the increase in the number of documents and the digitization of documents. The openness of judicial practice is slowly moving from a paper form to a digital form. Taking into account this dynamic, the importance of studying information and analytical tools for the court decisions analysis made in criminal proceedings is increasing. An overview of these tools became the purpose of this publication. It is emphasized that the analysis of judicial practice data makes it possible to evaluate not only the functioning of separate legal norms and institutions of substantive and procedural law, but also to consider the activity of the justice system in a broader context from the point of view of system-creating potential, the lever for the implementation of the rule of law and the approval of the model of due legal procedure, implementation of international standards and legal policy in the state. The article discusses digital platforms: «Unified State Register of Court Decisions», «Base of Legal Positions of the Supreme Court», «Analysis of Judicial Practice», «Court Statistics», HUDOC, «Protection of State Interests in the European Court». Special attention is paid to the web application «Combating crime in Ukraine: infographics», as well as open databases of judicial practice in Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, Lithuania and Germany. The study confirmed the pluralism of information and analytical tools for judicial practice research. Information and analytical resources are important for educational and scientific purposes, for sharing experience in the practical field, for identifying problems and for developing unified approaches to their solution, as well as for making strategic decisions regarding the reform of the justice system in Ukraine. The national database of the Unified State Register of Court Decisions in terms of informativeness and interface is no worse than foreign counterparts, although there are obvious directions for improving the functionality of the system taking into account modern challenges and needs.