THE PROBLEMS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPETITION IN THE ACTIVITIES OF THE DEFENDER AT THE PRE-TRIAL STAGES OF THE CRIMINAL PROCESS

Selina Elena Alexandrovna

Objective – this article is focused on the study of the conditions for the implementation of the principle of competition at the pre-trial stages of the criminal process, as well as the existing gaps in the legal regulation of the powers of the defender, which do not fully ensure the actual equality of the parties at the stage of preliminary investigation and, as a consequence, the genuine functioning of the fundamental principle of the criminal process. The author will propose the modernization of the current legislation by making appropriate changes in order to ensure genuine competition at the pre-trial stages of the criminal process. Relevance – exclusively within the framework of the adversarial nature of the parties, the procedural function of the lawyer can be implemented to the extent that it meets the rights and legitimate interests of the defendant. The adversarial principle is one of the fundamental principles of criminal proceedings, for the implementation of which both the prosecution and the defense must be endowed with the same rights and have a real opportunity to use the powers granted. The specifics of the implementation of the principle of competition in the activities of the defender is due to his activity in the process of proving. The legislator, giving the defender broad powers to collect evidence, took competition as a basis. The aim was to equalize the defense side with the prosecution side in order to ensure true equality, under which the fundamental principle of criminal proceedings will be realized. Exclusively within the framework of adversarial proceedings, the procedural function of a lawyer can be fully realized to the extent that it meets the rights and legitimate interests of the persons brought to criminal responsibility. Conclusions – currently, the principle of competition in the pre-trial stages of the criminal process is implemented in a limited mode due to the lack of genuine procedural equality of the parties. The lawyer is not a full-fledged subject of proof due to the identified gaps in the regulation of the defender's powers to collect evidence. In order to implement the adversarial principle in the lawyer's activity, it is necessary to fill in the existing regulatory gaps.

Keywords:the principle of competition, equality of the parties, defender, collection of evidence, criminal proceedings, gaps in legislation