Reasonable Time - Is It a Factor of Efficiency in Criminal Proceedings?

Abstract

The principle of reasonable time, included in Art. 6.1. of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation in 2010, is viewed in Russian criminal procedure law theory as a considerable contribution to the development of human rights guarantees in the sphere of criminal court proceedings. The legal nature of this principle, stemming from Art. 6 of the European Convention, which includes the concept «reasonable terms» in the general formula of each persons right to a fair trial, definitely reflects the expectations of all parties involved in criminal procedure relations. However, the introduction of this principle did not lead to any meaningful positive changes in the practice of law enforcement: violations of criminal procedures time limits remain an intractable problem. This problem, caused by the absence of any commonly recognized understanding of reasonable time limits for procedural activities, resulted in risks whose legal consequences are unacceptable for the society, the victims, the accused or the convicted, and create a negative attitude to the court system in general. The authors express their opinions regarding the problem of observing time limits, the understanding of reasonableness in law, and the legal regulation of the observance of procedural limits. They also present suggestions on improving the legal regulation of time limit observance in criminal proceedings. If such a principle of national court proceedings as reasonable time limit (part of the system of criminal proceedings) is violated, it leads to additional problems deteriorating the proceedings for criminal cases. The understanding of reasonable time is connected with the legal conscience of the law enforcer that, on the one hand, is always individual and, on the other - does not necessarily coincide with the opinion of scholars on this issue. The variety of actions and persons who carry them out, especially at the pre-trial stages, makes it necessary to develop a fixed understanding of a reasonable time limit, whose observance should not be equaled with the observance of procedural actions which, due to various circumstances, like the weather or some circumstances of subjective nature, could contribute to the violation of procedural time limits set out by law. Correspondingly, the improvement of the legal regulation of the observance of time limits for procedural actions as an important part of a fair criminal trial presupposes taking into consideration the whole range of relations emerging in the enforcement of criminal procedure legislation.