Principle of equality of arms in criminal proceedings: A systematic review of literature

Abstract

The principle of equality of arms is an element of the ECHR's principles of fair trial and fair hearing. This study was carried out to determine the knowledge and research gaps in the theses and articles in the national literature on the principle of equality of arms in criminal proceedings. Qualitative research strategy and systematic review method are employed. As a result of the systematic scanning process carried out on DergiPark, YÖK Thesis Center and TrDizin portals, 9 theses and 6 articles were identified and taken into examination and evaluation. It has been observed that there is no empirical study on the principle of equality of arms in the national literature, while existing studies are conducted with a normative approach. It has been observed that the majority of the identified studies examine the principle of equality of arms on a macro scale, while very few of them focus on one of the procedural implementation aspects of the principle. As a result of the content analysis, it has been determined that the principle has nearly 100 procedural implementation appearances in criminal proceedings and processes.