Directions of improvement of normative regulation of judicial status of investigating judge

Abstract

The article deals with legal regulation of the procedural status of an investigating judge. The author examines the standards that are formulated in the relevant international legal acts, in the practice of the ECHR, in the positions expressed by European experts, and relates to the activities of an investigating judge. They are classified into three groups: (a) Standards defining as a whole the requirements for the place and role of the court in the implementation of criminal justice, and therefore extend to all judicial functions, including judicial control function; b) standards defining the requirements for the organization and implementation of the judicial control function at the stage of pre-trial investigation; c) standards that determine the requirements for observance of human rights and freedoms, and thus serve as guiding points for subjects exercising judicial control powers. Standards defining in general the requirement for the place and role of the court in the implementation of criminal justice (such as the availability of justice, binding judgments, fair trial, due process hearing, equality before the law and the court, parties’ competition, transparency of the judicial system etc.), as well as standards that define requirements for the observance of human rights and freedoms (such as the right to liberty and security of person, the right to respect for private life, the right to protection, etc.) have already been sufficiently studied at the level of special investigations. The subject of this study is international standards, which determine the requirements for the organization and implementation of judicial control at the stage of pre-trial investigation. The author examines the standards of protection of constitutional rights by the court, a standard for clearly demarcating the role of investigator, prosecutor and investigating judge in order to ensure real competition at the stage of pre-trial investigation; the standard of the materiality of the right of restriction; standard of urgency of judicial control; the standard of the prohibition of the participation of an investigating judge in the examination of the merits. Key words: standards of activity of an investigating judge, judicial control powers, judicial control, the investigating judge.