Doctrinal Approaches to Understanding the Legal Nature of Other Documents as Evidence in Russian Criminal Procedure

The article delves into a comprehensive analysis of the approaches existing in modern Russian criminal procedure doctrine to understanding the legal nature of other documents as an independent form of evidence. The relevance of the study is determined by the development of information technologies and the need for theoretical understanding of the place of other documents in the modern system of evidence in criminal proceedings. The work systematizes and critically evaluates eleven main doctrinal directions in understanding other documents, identifies strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and demonstrates the absence of a unified methodological basis for studying this institution. Critical analysis reveals the fragmentary nature of existing theories and obstacles to forming a coherent doctrinal position. The functional approach is recognized as the most productive, allowing for the determination of the place of other documents in the evidence system through their specific functions.