On Declaration of the Will of the Concerned Trial Participants at the Conduct of the Inquiry in the Reduced Form

Abstract

When reforming criminal proceedings the issue of top priority is whether the rights and legitimate interests of injured parties, as well as of those prosecuted ones are observed. The addition of Chapter 32.1 “Inquiry in the Reduced form” to the Russian Federation Criminal Procedure Code followed that rule. Although that chapter was aimed at combating unreasonable delay in preliminary investigation the rights of participants of criminal proceedings weren’t violated or limited. The legislators expressly provided that participants of criminal legal proceedings when inquiry is performed in a reduced form, have the same rights as participants of criminal legal proceedings with inquiry performed in the general order. However, the analysis of standards of Chapter 32.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation shows that the criminal investigation participants, namely the victim and the suspect have more rights than it is specified in Art. 42 and 46 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code. One of these rights was the investigator’s choice of the form of preliminary investigation as these persons act and deed. Although the authors assess the merits of introducing the new chapter and analyze the views of processualists, they agree that the choice of the form of preliminary investigation cannot be determined by the will of participants of criminal proceedings owing to publicity of the criminal proceedings relations. Having analyzed the rights of the victim and the suspect provided by the standards of the RF Criminal Procedure Code the authors suggest amending Chapter 32.1 of The Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, regulating performance of inquiry in the reduced form.

DOI 10.14258/izvasu(2015)2.2-08