The system of procedural guarantees of the participants’ rights in criminal proceedings during pre-trial investigation

Abstract

The current criminal procedural legislation of Ukraine contains legal guarantees designed to ensure proper protection, safeguarding and realisation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of participants in criminal proceedings. However, in the legal literature, there is no unified approach to defining the essence and content of the system of procedural guarantees of the rights of participants to criminal proceedings, which negatively affects the functioning of the entire system of criminal procedural guarantees, its efficiency and effectiveness. The stability and effectiveness of the studied system of guarantees is an indicator of the level of development of many areas of public life and the legal status of an individual in the State. In this context, the issue of guaranteeing the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of participants to criminal proceedings during the pre-trial investigation is controversial for both legislators and scholars, and is important for every citizen of Ukraine, since pre-trial investigation and criminal procedural activities in general are associated with interference with a person's private life and restriction of his or her rights, freedoms and legitimate interests in cases provided for by law.
 An analysis of the essence of the system of procedural guarantees of the participants’ rights in criminal proceedings during pre-trial investigation has been made, and its structure and main constituent elements have been characterized. It has been proved that the system of the studied guarantees forms a set of conditions and means which are inextricably linked and interact.
 Based on the results of the study of scientific discussions and positions of procedural scholars, the author establishes that the system of procedural guarantees of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of participants to criminal proceedings should be considered as a set of interrelated and interacting regulatory and organisational guarantees contained in the provisions of substantive and procedural law and regulatory legal acts.
 Based on the results of the study, it has been proposed to define the elements of the system of procedural guarantees of rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of participants to criminal proceedings during pre-trial investigation, namely: criminal procedural form, principles of criminal proceedings, procedural status of a person, measures to ensure criminal proceedings, measures to restore violated rights of a person, control and supervision of authorised bodies, legal sanctions.