Аннотация
The use of special scientific knowledge is of great importance for the proper protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens. The judge, the prosecutor, the lawyer represent legal knowledge in the judicial process, and in the legal field they resolve and evaluate the emerging conflicts from the standpoint of their professional knowledge. At the same time, if there is a need for special knowledge in a particular branch of science, technology, art or craft, knowledge of knowledgeable persons is necessary. In connection with the importance for the evidentiary assessment of their actions, it is important to understand their legal status and the possibilities for a specialist to participate in the trial. In this connection, the purpose of scientific research is to study the current state of the application of special knowledge in the form of participation of a specialist in the process of proving, the features of legal regulation of the organizational and methodological foundations of his activities. The authors point to the process of «convergence» of two forms of application of special knowledge (expert and specialist) in terms of legal status, functions, which creates problem situations in the practice of their application. The authors in the process of research applied the methods of scientific modeling, comparative analysis and formal logic. As a result, the authors formed their own view on the difference between the two forms of application of special knowledge, proposed the optimization of forensic activities in accordance with the demands of legal practice. The value of the study lies in the fact that the authors proposed independent ways to overcome the problems associated with the participation of a specialist in the trial, highlighted the topical issues of his participation in the proceedings of the Republic of Kazakhstan.