The Principle of Legality in the Criminal Court Proceedings in the Russian Federation: Problems of Implementation into Enforcement Practices

Introduction. In a modern rule-of-law state, the principle of legality in criminal court proceedings is a necessary condition driving the whole system of criminal justice. Failure to comply with this principle leads to the decrease of social trust in the judicial system, growing number of judicial errors and violations of civil rights. Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation enshrines the principle of legality as binding for all parties in the process. However, in actual law enforcement practices, numerous deviations from this principle are observed, which requires a comprehensive analysis and development of the mechanisms to improve efficiency of its implementation. The aim of the study is to identify the main problems in adhering to the principle of legality in criminal court proceedings in Russia and to propose improvements to the legislation and law enforcement practices.

Materials and Methods. The research was based on such sources as: provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, Proceedings of the Plenums of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, and relevant scientific publications. The research methodology encompassed system and comparative legal approaches, dogmatic-logical and normative analysis, and other methods.

Results. The main challenges in implementing the principle of legality in criminal court proceedings were identified. The list of principles stipulated in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation has proved to be incomplete, for example, the principle of the unavoidability of liability is missing. It was established that contradictions between the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and other laws cause difficulties in interpreting and applying the norms, whereas, the errors committed by courts and investigators affect the legality of sentences. It was found that the level of professional training of some of the law enforcement officers remains quite low, whereas, the insufficient protection of victims’ rights in the criminal proceedings leads to legal imbalance. To prevent such deviations, the authors propose to implement a set of institutional and legal measures.

Discussion and Conclusion. The problems of implementing the principle of legality do not have exclusively legal nature, but are caused by a number of factors: the quality of legislation, low professionalism of law enforcement officers and the overall legal culture. Failure to comply with the principle of legality at any stage of criminal court proceedings can lead to declaring some evidences inadmissible, the rescission of a judgment, and loss of citizens’ trust in the judicial system. Therefore, improvement of the quality of criminal justice requires both regulatory amendments to certain provisions of law and strengthening professional training of law enforcement officers.

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