On the Role and Legal Powers of the Court in Ensuring the Legality of Decisions Made Based on the Results of the Consideration of a Report of a Crime

This paper analyzes the court’s review of complaints under Article 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation against decisions to initiate criminal proceedings and to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings, also known as restorative judicial review. Taking into account the understanding of legality as a principle of the activity of state bodies, the results of judicial statistics and judicial practice scrutiny, a conclusion is drawn about the important role of the court and the wide range of its legal capabilities to ensure the legality of the stage of initiating a criminal case, as well as the duty of the court to respond promptly to violations of laws and to identify investigative errors. The author emphasizes the inappropriateness of oversimplification when the court reviews the legality of contested decisions taken as a result of a report of a crime consideration, and groups together some of the most common investigative errors identified by the court. It was noted that the issue of introducing investigative judges into criminal proceedings, who, among other things, could fully exercise restorative judicial review, has not yet been positively resolved and remains a pressing problem. This is a serious shortcoming of the modern conceptual model for constructing pre-trial proceedings, which has led to the court combining the activities of judicial review and the consideration of the criminal case on the merits. Given the limited number of judges and the fact that judges are working under extreme workloads, it is proposed to narrow the scope of judicial review and focus on strengthening departmental control and prosecutorial oversight, including the enforcement of court decisions on complaints. Other ways of optimizing judicial review have also been outlined, aimed at implementing the state’s human rights function at the initial stage of criminal proceedings. The outlines of a new organizational model for pre-trial proceedings have been outlined, in which investigative judges should also become participants.

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