System of Principles in the Swiss Criminal Process

Abstract

The principles of the criminal process are the pillars that reflect its structure, essence, progress through the stages, the system of criminal procedural functions and coercive measures. In 2007, the single Code of Criminal Procedure was adopted in Switzerland for the first time, replacing 26 earlier cantonal CPCs. The work on the Code continued for more than 30 years; its development involved theoretical scientists and practitioners, as well as foreign experts. It reflects the latest approaches to many criminal justice institutions, including its fundamental principles, which will be discussed in this article. It is shown that among them there are those that the Code of Criminal Procedure does not specify: good faith, the principle of accusation, the independence of the criminal justice authorities, the prohibition of re-prosecution, etc. However, the Swiss Code of Criminal Procedure does not fix certain principles stipulated in the Russian Federation criminal process: immunity, the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms in criminal proceedings, the inviolability of the home, the secret of correspondence, telephone conversations, postal, telegraphic and other dispatches, competitiveness, ensuring the right to defense, the right to appeal procedural actions and decisions. Further, the author analyzes the principles of legality, publicity, respect for human dignity and the principle of justice, the prohibition of abuse of law, the principle of independence, the demand for acceleration, the principle of accusation, the presumption of innocence, and the free evaluation of evidence. The analyzed principles show the pronounced continental character of Swiss criminal justice. Many of them are due to the investigative maxim (the need to establish objective truth), which determines the most important functions of the court, the prosecutor's office, the police. The author shows that actual approaches and legal principles reflected in the code under consideration can be used by the modern Russian legislator in the course of further modernization of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, as well as in the development of the concept of the development of the domestic criminal process.