Some gaps in criminal procedural legislation at the time of court decisions appeal

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the explanation of such legislative defects as gaps in the criminal procedural legislation during court decisions appeal. Within the framework of the study the attention focuses on the fact that regulatory rulemaking of the court decisions appeal in criminal proceeding contains multiple gaps that affect negatively at its practical implementation. Detailed analysis of the gaps in the criminal procedure legislation has been carried out. By reference to specific aspects of the judicial review implementation, the gaps classification according to their subject is proposed.  More specifically the following gaps in the rulemaking of the court decisions appeal in criminal proceedings are identified: 1) concerning the object of appeal; 2) concerning the appealer; 3) concerning the subject of appeal; 4) concerning the appeal procedure, etc. It is pointed out that number of legal regulation gaps regarding the identification of the object of appeal is quite significant. Such gaps arise in response to the determining a list of court decisions by the legislator that are subject to appeal consequently making impossible reviewing those court decisions that are not directly enlisted. Such matter is illustrated by the example of the establishment of restrictions on the ability to appeal the investigating magistrate decisions. Considering the gaps concerning the appealer it is pointed out that in some cases the legislation does not provide the right of relevant parties for court decisions appeal or does not provide them with sufficient legal opportunities which limits a person’s constitutional privilege for court decision appeal review and his/her access to judicial proceedings. The analysis of gaps concerning the subject of appeal was also carried out. It is concluded with reason that such gaps arise due to the disadvantageous legislative determining of the issues which are allowed to appeal procedure. In the course of the research attention is drawn to the fact that the criminal procedural legislature furthermore contains other gaps in the rulemaking of court decisions appeal. In particular they concern the appeal procedure itself, implementation of the rights of its participants and some other issues. By way of illustration of the given type of gap it is indicated that the opportunity of implementation of the right to appeal for those persons who are directly granted with it by the law may be complicated due to the shortage of the actual opportunity to appeal against the judgment, in light of the high requirements for its content and format, advanced by the domestic lawmaking body. In the article motions considering eliminating and overcoming the enlisted legislative defects are formulated.