Ikiteisminio tyrimo teisėjas – žmogaus teisių garantas

Abstract

In all states, human rights have historical and cultural roots, but nowadays the protection of human rights constitutes one of the most important tasks of penal procedure (as well as other fields of law). Matters that fall under criminal procedure are particularly subject to the threat of human rights violations. To prevent them and at the same time to protect the parties to the proceedings from uncontrolled decisions of public officials, the institute of a pre-trial judge was introduced in criminal procedure.
The model of the institution of a pre-trial judge was introduced in criminal procedure by the 1808 Criminal investigation Code (Le Code D,instruction criminelle), which replaced the inquisitorial procedure, which meant that the function of crime investigation was transferred to a pre-trial judge (who was still a public official). This separated the functions of investigation and prosecution. However, in practice the importance of the prosecutor’s office to a pre-trial judge was so great that the new model had little difference from inquisitorial procedure.
Nowadays the institute of pre-trial judge exists in practically all procedures of morphological type; analogous institutes can be found worldwide, however the judge’s procedural status and functions are determined by the dominant principles of national law.
The institute of pre-trial judge in criminal procedure is an important safeguard of human rights.
A pre-trial judge ensures the legality of pre-trial investigation. This function enables a pre-trial judge to prevent violation of legitimate interests of the parties and infringement of law. In other word, a pre-trial judge ensures the civic interests during a process. Although the judge’s decisions focus on the issues of guilt, in principle a pre-trial judge concludes whether human right have (or have not) been violated and there is a sufficient cause to apply procedural measures or to initiate a court hearing, as well as evaluates the information that has been presented in the light of a potential court hearing.
The presence of the judiciary at the pre-trial stage provides for competition, however, in certain cases this presence poses threat to competition. It is important for a pre-trial judge not to become an investigator while carrying out the control function of the legality of investigation, and to retain an independent and unbiased arbiter.
The introduction of the institute of pre-trial judge has not solved all the problems in the area of human rights protection. Loopholes of procedural law (e. g. violation of the principle of procedural equality), prevents a pre-trial judge from a full realization of her/his possibilities and ensuring procedural legality.