Legal relations in criminal proceedings: controversial issues of structure and content

Abstract

Theorists of criminal proceedings traditionally view the legal relationship as a two-way legal relationship of subjects of criminal proceedings regulated by the norms of criminal procedural law, where the right of one subject of the legal relationship corresponds to the legal obligation of another subject. This approach not only prevails in educational literature on criminal procedure, but is also taken as the initial approach when conducting special scientific research. However, in this area there are procedural obligations for which it is impossible to find corresponding rights of any of the participants in the criminal process. The purpose of the study is to clarify the legal nature of such criminal procedural legal relations in which the connection between procedural rights and obligations is not obvious. The authors make an attempt to explain such legal relations from the point of view of the theory of general regulatory relations and to justify their criminal procedural nature. They substantiate the fallacy of the approach that assumes the existence of procedural duties corresponding to each other within the framework of the criminal procedural relationship. The methodological basis of the study was the dialectical method. In addition, general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and a systematic approach were used, as well as special legal methods: legal interpretation and the formal legal method. The results of the study showed that the public legal obligations of subjects of criminal proceedings constitute an element of general regulatory legal relations in which the state is the authorized party. During the transition of a general legal relationship to the law enforcement level, personalization of the subject composition of the legal relationship may occur when a certain participant in the criminal process (for example, a prosecutor) begins to exercise control over the fulfillment of the procedural duties of the authority. On this basis, the authors conclude that criminal procedural legal relations are not only legal relations that develop between participants in criminal proceedings, but also general regulatory relations that consolidate the competence of government bodies and officials in the field of criminal proceedings.

Keywords:

legal relationship, structure of legal relationship, rights and obligations, criminal process, criminal procedural legal relationship, general regulatory legal relationship, publicity, subjects of criminal proceedings