Methodological Foundations for Determining the Goal of Russian Criminal Proceedings

Abstract

The author states that modern social development is based on humanistic ideas, which underpin the policy for the liberalization of modern criminal and criminal procedure legislations, and analyzes the corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. This analysis proves the relevance of researching the methodological foundations of determining the goal of Russian criminal proceedings. As philosophy teaches us, the goal of any activity is determined by external factors and should thus be derived from them. At the same time, the organization of the work of actors «within» the system presupposes setting corresponding goals. Applying the logic of scientific cognition «from general to specific» to the criminal process, the author proves that it is necessary to initially determine its purpose at the highest possible level of generalization. After that, the purpose should be interpreted in practical terms, i.e. it is necessary to set the goal and objectives of criminal proceedings. It is noted that the purpose of criminal proceedings - protection against criminal infringements - determines the goal of criminal procedure activities - the implementation of this protection. Such are the dialectic features of the goal manifested in the combination of specific and general characteristics. At the same time, a goal needs to be specific enough, and not too general. The author supports the approach of the lawmakers used in Part 2, Art. 2 of the Model Criminal Procedure Code for the CIS countries, which determines the results that the bodies responsible for criminal procedures should strive to achieve. It is stated that in the countries of the Romano-Germanic legal system the goal of criminal court proceedings is considered to be reached if the guilty party is determined and the just criminal law norms are applied to this party in the form of punishment, whereas in the Anglo-Saxon legal family the goal of criminal proceedings consists in settling the conflict between the victim and the perpetrator. Besides, the author proves that the objectives of criminal court proceedings reflect the specific features of criminal procedure instrumentarium, while the results of reaching their goals are of criminal law nature since they are determined by the factors that are external in relation to the criminal proceedings. Based on this, the author presents the formulation of the goal of criminal proceedings as well as the results of reaching it.