Criminal procedure ≠ criminal justice

Abstract

The article deals with current problems and possible options for the further development of criminal procedure law on the basis of an analysis of unity, differences and the ratio of pretrial and judicial stages of proceedings in a criminal case. Examining in historical context such categories as the purpose, tasks and destination of criminal procedure, the author comes to the conviction of the fallacy of the identification of the concepts of criminal procedure and criminal justice that has become familiar. Based on the functional purpose of the main (authority) subjects of criminal procedure, the forms of their interaction, the ratio of pretrial and judicial proceedings are determined. The conclusion is formulated on the need to move to differentiated regulation of the pretrial stage of the criminal process as a sphere of activity of the bodies of accusatory power (preliminary investigation) and judicial stages as an area of functioning of the judiciary. Awareness of the difference in goals and objectives solved during criminal proceedings by subjects of the prosecution and judicial authorities allows us to hypothesize about the need to differentiate the principles of criminal procedure in relation to each of its two parts. The proposed idea should help to solve the most significant problems of criminal procedure law.