Part-time criminal proceedings in the context of Justice in the Republic of Belarus

Abstract

In recent years, the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter referred to as the Code of Criminal Procedure) has been amended to simplify and speed up judicial procedures. One of these stories was the appearance of absentee production in 2016. According to Part 1 of Art. 459 Code of Criminal Procedure applies to a person accused of committing a crime that does not represent a great public danger, when the accused fully admits his guilt and civil suit, if he is brought, the recognition made by him is not disputed by any of the parties and is not in doubt with the judge and the guilt of the accused, the legal qualification of the act and the consent of the accused and the victim to the trial in absentia in court are not in doubt; there are no other obstacles to sentencing ra without trial. This article raises the problem of the legal nature of the specified procedure for resolving cases by the court and its compliance with the constitutional provision on the adversarial nature of justice; it is stated that the existing in the legislation of Belarus the construction of the contest as a constitutional principle actually takes the procedure of sentencing without a trial beyond the scope of justice. In such circumstances, competition limits the legislator in creating a more flexible model of justice that meets current trends in simplifying ordinary judicial procedures. In this regard, it is concluded that it is advisable to revise the constitutional version of the principle of competition by supplementing Article 115 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus with a norm allowing for the possibility of derogation from it in cases provided for by law.