Essential Violations of Criminal Procedure in the New Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
Abstract
The article deals with conception of violations of criminal procedure regulated by the new Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania. This institution arouses a great deal of theoretic discussions and practical problems. The main objective of this article is to reveal the latest aspects of the definitions of the mentioned above violations: essential violations of criminal procedure as a ground for appeal and cassation, and regulation in the new Code; the object of the essential violations of criminal procedure; key features of this conception, the superficial interpretation of which may lead to negative consequences on evaluation of evidence, on passing a judgement and, finally, appealing the judgement and investigating the case in a court of a higher instance.
The research does not omit historical aspects of regulation of essential violations of criminal procedure. Comparative method of analysis is applied to discuss the experience of the neighbouring states (Byelorussia, Latvia, Poland, Russia) as well as Germany and Austria. The main conclusions of the research are made by assistance of such methods of interpretation as systemic, linguistic teleological and method of interpretation under legislators’ purpose.
Essential violations of criminal procedure may constitute a ground for cassation as well as an appeal. Therefore the regulation of such violations should be withdrawn from the part of the Code of Criminal Procedure regulating cassation and included into the part of the Code of Criminal Procedure regulating the process of appeal.
The expression provided in the part 3 of the Article 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure - “violations of the requirements of the present Code“, defining the main object of the essential violations of criminal procedure are not explicit enough, since the range of possible violations of criminal procedure do not only include violations of the requirements provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
According to the content and essence of the part 3 of the Article 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is possible to distinguish two groups of essential violations of criminal procedure: 1) violations causing restraints of lawful rights of the accused and thus preventing the court from thorough and fair investigation of the case and passing of a fair judgement or ruling 2) other violations preventing the court from thorough and fair investigation of the case and passing of a fair judgement or ruling.
Superficial or linguistic interpretation of the part 3 of the Article 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure may cause severe procedural consequences, thus it is essential to formulate the latter part as explicitly as possible concurrent with the pure purposes of this legal norm. Therefore, essential violations of criminal procedure constituting a ground for cassation and appeal, could be defined as follows: “Essential violations of the law on criminal procedure are recognized as violations of legal rules regulating criminal procedure, which prevent the court from thorough and fair investigation of the case and passing of a fair judgement or ruling by restraining or divesting the rights of persons brought under criminal procedure“.
The research does not omit historical aspects of regulation of essential violations of criminal procedure. Comparative method of analysis is applied to discuss the experience of the neighbouring states (Byelorussia, Latvia, Poland, Russia) as well as Germany and Austria. The main conclusions of the research are made by assistance of such methods of interpretation as systemic, linguistic teleological and method of interpretation under legislators’ purpose.
Essential violations of criminal procedure may constitute a ground for cassation as well as an appeal. Therefore the regulation of such violations should be withdrawn from the part of the Code of Criminal Procedure regulating cassation and included into the part of the Code of Criminal Procedure regulating the process of appeal.
The expression provided in the part 3 of the Article 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure - “violations of the requirements of the present Code“, defining the main object of the essential violations of criminal procedure are not explicit enough, since the range of possible violations of criminal procedure do not only include violations of the requirements provided by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
According to the content and essence of the part 3 of the Article 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, it is possible to distinguish two groups of essential violations of criminal procedure: 1) violations causing restraints of lawful rights of the accused and thus preventing the court from thorough and fair investigation of the case and passing of a fair judgement or ruling 2) other violations preventing the court from thorough and fair investigation of the case and passing of a fair judgement or ruling.
Superficial or linguistic interpretation of the part 3 of the Article 369 of the Code of Criminal Procedure may cause severe procedural consequences, thus it is essential to formulate the latter part as explicitly as possible concurrent with the pure purposes of this legal norm. Therefore, essential violations of criminal procedure constituting a ground for cassation and appeal, could be defined as follows: “Essential violations of the law on criminal procedure are recognized as violations of legal rules regulating criminal procedure, which prevent the court from thorough and fair investigation of the case and passing of a fair judgement or ruling by restraining or divesting the rights of persons brought under criminal procedure“.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Section
Articles
Authors contributing to Jurisprudence agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public (CC BY-NC-ND) License, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this licence are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
