The limits of action of prejudice in criminal procedural legislation of European countries

Abstract

The peculiarities of the normative fixation of prejudice in the criminal procedural legislation of Austria, Germany and France and the limits of its effect are examined in the article. Prejudice affects the increase in the responsibility of judges, as it contributes to making legal and well-founded decisions that concern not only the rights and interests of the parties to a particular proceeding, which depends on the facts established in this decision, and in the future they may affect the observance of the rights and interests of others persons. It is argued that the concept of prejudice is not provided in the criminal procedural law of these countries, but, apparently, the decisions of courts and other bodies are recognized during the consideration of criminal cases by the courts of Austria, Germany and France without evidence. This emphasizes the authority and significance of the decisions of the court and other bodies, despite the fact that the legislation of these countries attaches great importance to the freedom of assessment of evidence and make decisions by the court based on the internal conviction of the judges. It was determined that the criminal procedural legislation of Austria, Germany and France recognizes the prejudicial significance of the circumstances established by the verdict and other court decision, as well as acts of criminal prosecution bodies during the consideration of a criminal case. At the same time, the probative force of such decisions is absolute for the court considering the criminal case, until they are recognized as illegal by a higher court. Unlike the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the Criminal Procedure Codes of Austria, Germany and France recognize the circumstances established by a verdict or other court decision, as well as acts of criminal prosecution bodies, without evidence, only by the court, the prosecutor and other criminal prosecution bodies are not endowed with such a right. In the Criminal Procedure Code, the specified state verdicts and acts of criminal prosecution bodies are evidence, their evidentiary force is absolute, which greatly facilitates the use of prejudice in criminal proceedings. Taking into account the positive legislative experience of these countries, it is proposed to include the verdict, which has gained legal force, adopted within the framework of civil, arbitration or administrative proceedings, among the other documents specified in Part 2 of Article 99 of the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine.