Private Expert Opinions in Criminal Proceedings – A Historical Overview

The article aims to demonstrate the evolution of criminal-proceeding legal regulations which have been in force in the Polish legislation since 1928, related to private evidence, including the so-called private expert opinions. A private expert opinion is understood as a private document submitted in a criminal proceeding by a non-institutional, private entity (e.g. a defendant or their defender, an aggrieved party or their attorney) to a judicial authority in order to be used in the proceeding and to pursue the legal interest of the entity under consideration. The article presents the essential Polish legal regulations of the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1928, 1969, and 1997, referencing private evidence and use thereof in a criminal proceeding, as well as the status of a private expert opinion in the legal regulations under analysis; it presents the views of the doctrine and the case-law in this regard, prevalent at the time. The conducted analysis leads to demonstrating the differences in the status and role of a private expert opinion in criminal proceedings in the aforementioned codes, as well as to showing the evolution of the use of private evidence in criminal proceedings. The study utilised such research methods as the historical comparative legal analysis of the regulations in force in the successive parliamentary acts, supported by an analysis of the case-law and doctrine.