Expediency as the Principle and Grounds for Decision-Making in Criminal Proceedings: Foreign Experience and the Prospects for Using it in Russia

Abstract

The processes of the convergence and divergence of law in the era of globalization as well as the trend for establishing similar court proceedings in different countries determine the necessity of studying legal concepts still unknown in the Russian legislation but widely applied in other countries, and expediency is one of them. The goal of this research is to analyze Russian and foreign legislation from both modern and historical perspectives, to analyze the legal regulation of expediency in criminal proceedings, to determine its contents, to differentiate between expediency as a principle and as grounds for the decision to refuse the initiation of criminal proceedings or to terminate them, which is made by a specially authorized official or a state body, to present well-grounded suggestions for the improvement of Russian legislation and the practice of law enforcement. It is determined that expediency is recognized as a principle of criminal proceedings in a number of European states. It is shown that the principle of expediency does not contradict justice and is based on such characteristics of criminal procedure activities as effectiveness, optimality, promptness, procedural economy. At the same time, legislations of the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland provide for the discretionary powers of the prosecutor and other officials to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings, to refuse to bring charges or support them due to inexpediency. The authors show the advantages and disadvantages of making decisions on such grounds: the disadvantages include wide discretionary powers of the officials which could lead to the abuse of power in the absence of necessary guarantees (corruption-generating factor); the advantages are procedural economy, wide opportunities for officials and state bodies involved in the criminal process to use discretionary powers depending on the circumstances of each specific case. They argue that the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation should provide an opportunity for specially authorized officials and state bodies to refuse to initiate a criminal case or pursue criminal prosecution on the grounds of inexpediency.