Prospects for Fixing the Institution of Criminal Misconduct in Domestic Legislation: Criminal Procedural Aspect

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the analysis of the procedural side of the institution of criminal misconduct contained in the draft federal law «On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the introduction of the concept of criminal misconduct», introduced by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. The author examines the proposed institution through the prism of the existing problems in criminal proceedings — its excessive formalization and limited resources of judicial and law enforcement agencies. According to the author, domestic criminal proceedings do not provide proper differentiation of legal impact depending on the severity of the committed act, and some legal constructions in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, conceived as ways to increase the effectiveness of criminal procedural activities, do not fully fulfill their purpose. The introduction of the institution of criminal misconduct fits into the global trend of wider use of simplified (accelerated) procedural forms, of which it is a kind, and will allow achieving greater procedural savings and, as a result, using the released resources in matters requiring closer attention. The institution of a criminal act is proposed in a somewhat truncated form — this is caused by practical considerations, the requirements of smoothness, gradual accumulation of new legal institutions. Touching upon the issue of the limits of possible simplification of procedural forms, the author notes that procedural economy and the desire for a proper degree of diversity of legal regulation cannot serve as a justification for reducing the level of procedural guarantees of participants in criminal proceedings.