The process of global digitalization is dictated by the natural demand of society to meet the needs of information development, acceleration and simplification of life processes in all its spheres. Criminal proceedings, although strictly conservative in terms of digital progress, are nevertheless unable to remain in an unchanged form, due to their direct dependence on changes in the socio-economic structure of society. Russian scientists have studied the issue of digital development of the criminal process a lot, but we are forced to state that legal regulation clearly lags behind the rapidly changing social relations that arise in criminal proceedings under the influence of digital transformation. One of the controversial issues in criminal procedural science today is the use of “electronic evidence” in proving in criminal cases, their legal regulation, trends and prospects for the development of electronic production procedures. The liveliness of discussions in science, the shortcomings of legal regulation, and the difficulties of law enforcement call for a theoretical understanding of problematic issues and the development of scientifically based proposals and recommendations for resolving them.

The purpose of the study is to study the legal nature of “electronic evidence”, revealing their concept and characteristic features, the feasibility and prospects of legal regulation of a new type of evidence in Russian criminal procedure legislation, the achievement of which is ensured by solving a number of problems: theoretical analysis of scientific views, the emerging judicial - investigative practice of using evidence in electronic form in criminal procedure, as well as foreign experience, identifying its positive and negative aspects.

The basis of the study is the dialectical method of cognition, which made it possible to objectively and comprehensively consider the problematic issues of using evidence in electronic form in criminal proceedings, to identify its direct dependence on the essence of the emerging legal relations, the concept of “electronic evidence” in connection with law enforcement, and the experience of foreign countries. Through theoretical and legal analysis, the characteristic features of the evidence under study and problems of legal regulation were identified, and terminological analysis - the definition of “electronic evidence” was formed. The formal legal method was used to develop proposals for improving the current criminal procedural legislation.

Conclusion: the analysis of theoretical approaches in the science of criminal proceedings to the definition of “electronic” evidence made it possible to identify its characteristic features and, on their basis, formulate the author’s definition. The need for legal regulation of “electronic evidence”, caused by law enforcement practice and trends in the development of social relations, is substantiated by adding Part 2 of Art. 74 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation with paragraph 4.1 of the following content: “electronic evidence”, and also outlines the main directions of legal regulation of the procedural procedure for the use of “electronic evidence”, as well as the legal consolidation of the concept in order to ensure uniformity of interpretation of this legal category, supplementing the criminal procedure law with a separate article of the corresponding content.