The Genesis of the Concept of Relevance of Evidence

The article traces the historical evolution of one of the key properties of evidence in criminal proceedings – its relevance – from antiquity to modern Russian law. Based on the analysis of primary sources and scholarly doctrines, it demonstrates how the understanding of this criterion transformed from its origins in Roman law, where intent and case circumstances were central elements, through formalization in the medieval inquisitorial process, where confession became the «queen of evidence» to a radical revision during the Soviet period, when relevance was replaced by the expediency of establishing «objective truth». Special attention is paid to the return, in the modern Russian Criminal Procedure Code (CPC RF), of strict formal legal criteria linking relevance to the subject of proof. The author concludes that, despite the absence of a unified scholarly definition, the specific content of the principle of relevance is now actively shaped by the applied practice of higher courts, which develops such aspects as procedural economy, the prohibition of investigating circumstances irrelevant to the accusation, and the mandatory consideration of evidence contradicting the prosecution’s case.