ABSTRACT
The aim of the study is to identify the features and to determine the relationship between medical and legal (investigative & judicial) practice on detection of the torture effects. It is emphasized that the paper is a continuation of the thesis study on the criminal law problems of torture, which were prepared by the Department of Criminal Law No. 1, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. During the preparation of this article, the following material were used: the publications issued by the centers for rehabilitation of torture victims, specialized medical journals, manuals for physicians, publications by the IASP and the Ukrainian Association for the Study of Pain, explanations by leading specialists of Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine, Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University, Lviv, Ukraine, UN reports, OHCHR official explanations, international treaties on prohibition of torture, criminal codes of post-Soviet countries. The empirical basis of the study was provided by 41 final decisions of the court on torture cases of taken since 2014 till 2019. To achieve the aim of the study the analysis and induction methods, as well as statistical and systemic methods were applied. According to the results of the study, it is concluded that only the joint medical and legal detection of severe pain and suffering is the key to the correct solution of the issue of presence or absence of the torture effects. It is noted that neither medical nor law enforcement assessments are self-sufficient and require addition of the mutual contexts. Attention is drawn to the fact that development of the guidelines on the joint medical and legal detection of severe pain and suffering is one of the main tasks for the scientific community. It is proved that the peculiarity of medical practice on detecting the effects of torture consist of is the need to determine both statutory (severe pain and suffering) and "remote" (physical, psychosomatic and mental) effects of this crime. The reasonable arguments are put forward that the specificity of legal (investigative & judicial) practice in detection of severe pain and suffering (as effects of torture) is associated with the need to use a wide range of tools: scientific and legal methods used for determination of severe pain and suffering, medical reports on intensity of pain and suffering, medical documentation on fixation of "remote" effects of torture, reports on forensic, psychological and psychiatric examinations, testimonies and protocols of interrogation of the victim and witnesses, protocols of inspection of crime-committing scene, search, investigative experiment, inspection of material evidence, etc.
