THE ORIGIN OF «PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE» MAXIM: SOME MYTHS DEBUNKING

It is thought that the presumption of innocence maxim emerged in France and was enshrined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789. Unanimity of scholars in that question begot some doubts. Resolving them, the author comes to following conclusions: this maxim was applied in a legal procedure of ancient Athens; it reappeared in the age of the Inquisition as opposed to the confidence of inquisitors in guilt of heretics; bourgeois revolutions in England and its colonies, which had occurred before the French Revolution, couldn’t do without this presumption, the reason is that bourgeoisie of these countries had the same origins and pursued the same goals. It is untrue that legal acts of bourgeois revolutions «pioneers» did not refer to the presumption of innocence. There is no such a collocation in articles of these legal acts, but their content corresponds to Art. 9 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.