Witness examination in the Roman tradition of procedural law and the issue of evidence-taking from a witness in the Polish criminal procedure

Abstract

In the introductory part, the article discusses the issue of how the position of a witness was formed under the Roman criminal procedure. The model of witness hearing in Roman penal law serves as a background to discuss the issues, which determine the model of contemporary witness examination in criminal procedure. The author analyses the course of witness examination across the following stages: preliminary stage; free statements by the witness; targeted questions. Each of these stages is limited by the scope of evidence-taking activities set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure, while the intended aim of the hearing requires that the witness hearing body use appropriate methods.