La inexplicable persistencia de la valoración legal de la prueba

Abstract

The legal evaluation system of evidence has long been clearly marginalized in the civil process, and is legally non-existent in criminal proceedings. However, its long validity due to the tribunals’ praxis –more than by legal provision–, causes inexplicable manifestations of the old system that are still present and must be abolished.These manifestations include the legal assessment of documentary evidence in civil proceedings, or the existence of oaths and promises, ununderstandable today, as well as the outdated conception of the burden of proof, or even an also outdated study of circumstantial evidence. All this provokes today an improper analysis of a system in which the free evaluation of evidence shall govern, and prevents the full scientific development of this system, which logically affects the practice of the courts.This paper indicates how to correct and eliminate these trawls of the past.