The features of mediation in the criminal proceedings of Ukraine

Abstract

Resolving a criminal conflict through dialogue, taking into account the interests of both its parties, namely the victim and the suspect/accused, correcting the perpetrator of the corresponding criminal offence, as well as reducing the number of re-offenders – all are the real results of restorative justice.
 One of the most common forms of restorative justice is mediation in the criminal proceedings. The introduction of mediation in Ukraine today is one of the urgent areas of reforming the system of citizens' access to fair justice.
 What is mediation and what is its legal regulation? What are the features of the use of mediation in the criminal proceedings? The purpose of this scientific article is to clarify the above issues.
 The article reveals the concept of mediation in the criminal proceedings. The current legislation, the Draft Law of Ukraine «On Mediation» as well as international legal acts regulating mediation issues in the criminal proceedings are analyzed.
 The article also highlights the features of mediation in the criminal proceedings, reveal their essence. Particular attention is paid to the peculiarity of the subject composition, gravity and type of the criminal offense as one of the criteria for the application of the mediation procedure or its impossibility.
 Modern Ukrainian legislation is known to provide sufficient prerequisites for the possibility of reconciliation between the victim and the offender, and hence for the application of restorative justice programs, including mediation. The legal institution with which mediation is often compared, and sometimes equated, is a reconciliation agreement between the victim and the suspect/accused. Within the article, the authors present their own vision of the correlation between the abovementioned legal institutions.
 Consequently, the article states the existence of all prerequisites for the introduction of the institution of mediation in the criminal proceedings as well as the necessity of its enshrinement at the legislative level.