Negative admissibility of evidence in public law litigation: reflections on the exercise of public authorities’ power in relation to the proof process

We consider the issues of the implementation of certain public authorities in relation to a future judicial dispute. We define the boundaries of use of additional evidentiary tools through the prism of the powers vested in other (non-parties in a particular court case) public entities. We substantiate the applicability of the general rule on negative admissibility, we highlight special cases when evidence previously obtained by an authority that does not have the status of a person participating in the case could still be submitted to a court case initiated on a dispute involving a public authority. The general logic of the proposed approach can be applied both to a procedural private opponent when he received “reinforcement” due to the actions of another authority, and can also be used for private law disputes. We conclude that the absence in the current Russian legislation of any norms that build intersectoral relations with regard to the institution of negative admissibility of evidence obtained by other authorities not only generates contradictions in judicial practice, but also in a certain sense discredits the adversarial judicial procedure itself and discourages public authorities, which begin to operate with special tools to combat socially dangerous acts in “ordinary” court cases.