A Court Decision in Different Periods of the Development of Russian Criminal Proceedings: Comparative Analysis of the Texts of Procedural Acts

Using authentical law enforcement acts of Russian courts issued in 1912, 1918 and 1947, the paper illustrates the change in approaches in criminal procedural legislation to the form and content of a court decision (a sentence), the peculiarities of its introductory, descriptive-rationale and operative parts. Particular attention is paid to the differences substantiated by the principles of legal proceedings, the circle of participants, the stage structure of the process and other fundamental features of the criminal procedure of a particular historical period. The paper elucidates that the presentation in the narrative part of the verdict of the full text of the jury’s decision and the jury’s responses constitutes the specifics of the decisions reached by the jury in the post-reform period. It is noted that limited data on the personality of the criminal in comparison with the later stages is provided. It is shown that the defendant’s sanity determination was assigned to the jury, rather than to the presiding judge. The indication in the jury’s decision of two dates—the date of the jury’s decision pronouncement by the court and the date of public announcement—was pre-conditioned by the procedure for calculating the term assigned to appeal the verdict. Two sentences from the Soviet period illustrate the change in the size of the panel of the court and the way in which citizens participated in the administration of justice. The author highlights the lack of analysis of evidence in Russian sentences up to 1934. The paper provides for the assessment of the specified features of the court decisions. The author concludes that it is necessary to establish guarantees for the issuance of legal, reasonable and fair sentences, including sentences in reduced proceedings.

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