LEGISLATIVE REGULATION OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS IN CODIFIED ACTS: HISTORICAL LEGAL ASPECTS

Abstract

The article considers the development of legislative regulation of criminal proceedings in codified acts in force on the territory of Ukraine and at the present stage of Ukrainian statehood. This question attracts the attention of many generations within different specialties, because the study of a phenomenon will not be comprehensive without a retrospective approach. Modern research on the sources of criminal procedural law and their individual components does not always reflect the historical aspects of such objects. Only in some works, some issues of a retrospective nature are raised. The importance and need of the aspect proposed in this article is seen in clarifying the structural and substantive construction of legislation in the field of criminal justice in different periods of the Ukrainian state, regulation of the source base of the criminal process, directions of criminal procedure law before the CPC of Ukraine 2012 year and making changes to it at the present stage. The structure of Criminal Procedure Codes and rule-making approaches to the presentation of rules on the sources of criminal proceedings are studied. The main problematic issues raised by domestic scholars and practitioners before the adoption of the CPC of Ukraine were the following: accusatory orientation and mixed criminal process (close relationship between the court and law enforcement agencies); ensuring the principle of adversarial proceedings and proper protection (rights of the defender); availability of returning the case for additional investigation; the volume of the Code and the complexity of pre-trial proceedings due to lengthy inspections of allegations of crimes; repeated appeal, which delays the process; the functions of the prosecutor’s office to conduct an investigation and control it; availability of inquiry as a form of pre-trial investigation; the predominance of the written process over the direct examination of evidence; rules of admissibility of evidence; determining the role of the court without retaining the accusatory function; determination of the procedural status of the suspect and accused (the need of the latter); the need to expand the rights of the victim and civil plaintiff. The development of legislative techniques for settling criminal procedure legislation has been noted. The author’s position on the influence of historical periods of formation of criminal procedural law on the current CPC of Ukraine is expressed and it is noted that the legislator took into account European values, international standards of criminal justice, rules of normative design, which allowed to create a comprehensive legislative act.