Reasonable terms of criminal proceedings in the context of judgments of the European court of human rights v. Ukraine

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of "reasonable terms" as the basis of criminal proceedings and the current state of its provision in our country. A study of the national legislative consolidation of this principle and its boundaries in Ukraine was conducted. The issue of compliance with the "reasonable terms" of criminal proceedings analysis through the prism of European standards in the context of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights against Ukraine.
 It is established that the validity of the duration of the proceedings is assessed by the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter – ECtHR) individually, taking into account the specific circumstances of the case and the criteria developed in practice. Most often in decisions against Ukraine to establish the presence or absence of violation of the principle of "reasonable terms" ECtHR takes into account the following priority criteria: the complexity of criminal proceedings; the conduct of the participants in the criminal proceedings (the applicant and the competent authorities) and the manner in which the investigator, prosecutor and court exercise their powers. The analyzed practice of the ECtHR v. Ukraine alleges the guilt of law enforcement agencies and the court in the excessive length of criminal proceedings and the lack of "special diligence" in their activities (for example, ECtHR judgments in “Nechai v. Ukraine”, “Melnikov v. Ukraine”, “Radzevil v. Ukraine”). Emphasis is placed on the statistical indicators of the ECtHR's activity in Ukraine, on the basis of which the current state of compliance by law enforcement agencies and courts with the principle of "reasonable terms" in Ukraine is analyzed.
 According to the results of the study, the authors identified prospects for further improvement of this principle in practice. It is concluded that it is necessary to take legal measures to eliminate the causes and consequences caused by the violation of the principle of "reasonable terms" of criminal proceedings as an international standard of human rights.