Przesłuchanie oskarżonego o popełnienie zbrodni wojennych na rozprawie jako specyficzna czynność dowodowa
The Hearing of the Accused of War Crimes at Trial as a Specific Evidentiary Act

Summary/Abstract: The study is devoted to the problem of hearing of the accused at trial. Recognizing the specific functions of this hearing, which, on the one hand, has the character of an evidentiary act serving to establish the circumstances relevant to criminal responsibility, and on the other hand, is an essential manifestation of the right to defense, specific regulations relating to its manner of implementation are indicated. The fact that hearing of the accused serves a double purpose means that in each trial model it functions within a number of detailed rules and principles, among which the prohibitions of evidence and the standard for assessing the credibility of an accused’s testimony play an important role. The nature of the activity of questioning the accused at trial is closely linked to the model of criminal trial. The functions and the manner in which this activity is conducted are defined differently in the continental trial model, with a limited adversarial approach, and differently in the Anglo-Saxon trial, with a strong dominance of adversarial elements. In the case of proceedings under the ICC Statute, the hearing activity is of a mixed nature. The regulations contained in the Statute partly reflect the characteristic assumptions of the adversarial model and partly refer to the continental model of inquisitorial trial. As a result, the model of hearing of the accused of war crimes at an ICC trial should take into account the properties and characteristics of this activity resulting from both the inquisitorial and adversarial models. It is worth noting that due to the possibility of reconstructing the principle of material truth from the comprehensive provisions of the ICC Statute, the activity of hearing of the accused should also take into account this principle. An important element determining the normative framework of hearing of the accused is the recognition that it is a manifestation of the right to defense, to which a number of rights and limitations of the accused are connected. The correct conduct of the act of hearing of the accused, that takes into account the guarantee aspects of the procedural regulation, plays an important role in terms of the basis for the legitimacy of the ius puniendi at the level of international criminal law.

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