CRIMINAL PROCESS IN A PANDEMIC AND THEN

Abstract

Due to the emergence of a new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), measures aimed at limiting its spread have made it impossible to administer justice in compliance with its democratic principles, implying the possibility of personal participation of all interested parties in court procedures to effectively defend their interests. In this regard, on April 8, 2020, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation adopted a decree recommending that the courts, among other measures, intensify the work of Internet receptions, ensure the reception, processing and registration of documents submitted to the courts in electronic form, including in the form of an electronic document, consider cases and materials of urgent nature in court hearings using the video-conferencing system and (or) the web-conference system. Despite the fact that in accordance with the program for the development of the Russian judicial system, approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 27, 2012 № 1406, the modernization of the work of courts based on digital technologies has already begun in the country, their development in criminal proceedings lags behind other methods of administering justice. Given this circumstance, as well as the actual absence in the criminal process of electronic document management and legal regulation of the grounds and procedure for conducting a trial in the mode of a web conference, the article attempts to determine the limits of the possibilities of using new technologies in criminal proceedings, to substantiate the conclusion that that the use of digital technology in criminal proceedings is not only possible, but necessary, as well as to determine the direction of development of criminal proceedings in this direction.