Problems of distribution of procedural expenses when dismissing a person from criminal responsibility

Abstract

The article deals with the issues relevant to law enforcement practice related to the awareness of the legal content of Articles 118 and 124-126 of the CPC of Ukraine. Based on the generalization of the case law of the courts of first, appellate and cassation instances, it is concluded that in Ukraine there is a heterogeneous practice on the distribution of procedural costs for persons whose criminal proceedings is closed and the legality of recovering from the accused in favour of State related to the involvement of expert. The authors state that criminal justice is a resource-intensive type of state activity, which is due to many factors, among which effective counteraction to criminal offenses and solving criminal proceedings requires a state system of criminal justice, which should unite bodies and institutions with powers to conduct pre-trial investigations, supervise compliance with the law during pre-trial investigations, judicial control, judicial review of criminal proceedings, review of court decisions, execution of sentences, establishment and proper functioning of institutions of providing protection, representation and other legal assistance on professional basis, etc.
 Given the high cost of criminal proceedings, almost all of the costs are borne by the state. This is not accidental, because through criminal proceedings the public interest expressed in Art. 2 of the CPC in the form of tasks of criminal proceedings. At the same time, it is advisable to collect some procedural costs from persons who have committed a criminal offense. However, scholars have not paid enough attention to the distribution of procedural costs in criminal proceedings. This has led to the existence of regulatory defects in the CPC of Ukraine, which were inherited from the CPC in 1960. By stating the lack of the unity of the law enforcement practice and judges’ approach to the interpretation of the provisions of Chapter 8 of the CPC “Procedural expenses”, the authors of the article seek to find out the essence of procedural expenses in criminal proceedings, decision on their distribution during the closure of criminal proceedings at the stage of pre-trial investigation or trial, in particular the release of a person from criminal liability, as well as whether to recover from the accused in favor of the state procedural costs related to the involvement of an expert, in case of closure of criminal proceedings and implementation of doctrinal interpretation of the provisions of paragraph 3 of the Part 1 of Art. 118 of the CPC regarding the definition of the concept of costs associated with the involvement of experts in criminal proceedings, in their systematic combination with the Law of Ukraine “On Forensic Science”.