THE FORM AND PLACE OF THE TRIAL OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AS ITS GENERAL PROVISIONS

Abstract

The article is devoted to examination of the form and place of the trial of criminal proceedings as its general provisions. In it, based on the study of the domestic criminal procedural law and foreign legal regulations, the author's vision of the issues included in the subject of the study is formulated. It is substantiated that the general provisions of court proceedings, given in Art. 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, provide answers to three questions related to the conduct of the trial: for how long? how exactly? where? So, in fact, it contains general provisions relating to: a) the term of court proceedings; b) forms of court proceedings; c) places of court proceedings. It is proved that in the provision of Part 2 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on the fact that "the judicial review of criminal proceedings is carried out in a court session" defines the form of the judicial review. It is a court session. Criminal procedural activity, the content of which is preparation for consideration of criminal proceedings, consideration of its merits, review of contested court decisions, resolution of issues arising during the serving of the sentence or after its actual departure, consideration of requests of representatives of the prosecution regarding their intention to limit constitutional rights and freedoms persons and complaints of interested persons on the decisions, actions or inaction of pre-trial investigation bodies and the prosecutor takes place in the form of a court session. Therefore, the categories "trial" and "court session " are related in terms of content and form. It is noted that this form provides the possibility of joint criminal procedural activity of the court and the participants in the criminal proceedings in order to consider and resolve both the intermediate and the main issue of the criminal proceedings in a room specially adapted for this purpose. It is argued that domestic legal regulation of the place of trial (court session) is difficult to recognize as successful. The only requirement for this place is special room equipment. At the same time, there are no prescriptions about the specific location of such a room. From a literal understanding of the analyzed provision, it is possible to make a false conclusion about the possibility of placing courtrooms in the buildings of law enforcement and other state bodies, local self-government bodies, shopping and entertainment centers, etc. However, this would be a violation of such a principle of the organization of judicial power as independence. In view of the above, the first sentence of Part 3 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine is proposed to be worded as follows: "The court session takes place in a specially equipped premises of the court building – the court session hall." It is claimed that the content of the trial is not only procedural actions, but also procedural decisions. In the court session dedicated to the above-mentioned procedural actions, the adoption of procedural decisions is not excluded. Taking this into account, Part 3 of Art. 318 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine is proposed to be worded as follows: "If necessary, the trial may be held outside the courthouse."