Legal presumptions in the context of contemporary criminal justice: formulation of a paradigm

Abstract

The concept of ‘presumption’ – despite being often present in the legal environment – still lacks an approach which is uniformly accepted. Worku Y. Wodage argues that ‘the controversy regarding the operation and effect of “presumption” (. . .) has not yet been conclusively resolved despite efforts of scholars.’1 One has a situation where one notion, used to potentially denote a number of different legal categories, causes various problems. In this Article the concept of ‘presumption’ is examined from the position of exact sciences and laws of cognition, and it is argued that only a part of the various elements of the legal technique united under a title of ‘presumptions’ can be recognized as proper presumptions.