Legal certainty: interrelation of criminal law and criminal procedure aspects

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the problem of establishing the relationship between the criminal law and criminal procedure aspects of legal certainty. The author establishes that legal certainty within criminal justice is a dichotomous category, since it combines the requirements (rules) of criminal law and criminal procedure, and the category of legal certainty itself is a polymorphic construction in terms of content and essence, which gives grounds to consider legal certainty as a) a property of a rule of law; b) a principle of law; c) a requirement for a court decision; d) consequences (properties) of the legal force of a court decision; e) grounds for reversal of a court decision; f) a subjective right of a person to know what he or she is accused or suspected of; g) a criterion for realization of the legal status of participants to criminal law and criminal procedural relations. The criminal law manifestation of legal certainty relates exclusively to the properties of criminal law provisions and the relevant principle of criminal law, but it has a formative and guiding effect on criminal procedural manifestations of the principle of legal certainty and is interrelated with them. The author distinguishes three levels of legal certainty as a universal legal category of criminal law and criminal procedure law: normative (legislative), law enforcement and scientific (doctrinal). It is stated that legal certainty is not only a guarantee for an individual against arbitrary actions of the State within the criminal justice system, but also an opportunity for him/her to clarify his/her legal status within criminal law and criminal procedure relations, and to expect only predictable criminal law and criminal procedure consequences of actions of bodies and persons authorized by the State to apply criminal law response measures. If, as a result of legal uncertainty of criminal law provisions, a person does not understand the consequences of his/her behavior within criminal law relations, such a person will not be able to timely and adequately correct his/her behavior in order to change his/her legal status in accordance with the requirements of criminal law provisions. As a result, the law on criminal liability itself loses its regulatory value