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 coercivemeasures. In 2007, the single Code of Criminal Procedure was adopted in Switzerlandfor the first time, replacing 26 earlier cantonal CPCs. The work on the Code continuedfor more than 30 years; its development involved theoretical scientists and practitioners,as well as foreign experts. It reflects the latest approaches to many criminal justiceinstitutions, including its fundamental principles, which will be discussed in this article. Itis shown that among them there are those that the Code of Criminal Procedure does notspecify: good faith, the principle of accusation, the independence of the criminal justiceauthorities, the prohibition of re-prosecution, etc. However, the Swiss Code of CriminalProcedure does not fix certain principles stipulated in the Russian Federation criminalprocess: immunity, the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms in criminalproceedings, the inviolability of the home, the secret of correspondence, telephoneconversations, postal, telegraphic and other dispatches, competitiveness, ensuring theright to defense, the right to appeal procedural actions and decisions. Further, the authoranalyzes the principles of legality, publicity, respect for human dignity and the principleof justice, the prohibition of abuse of law, the principle of independence, the demandfor acceleration, the principle of accusation, the presumption of innocence, and thefree evaluation of evidence. The analyzed principles show the pronounced continentalcharacter of Swiss criminal justice. Many of them are due to the investigative maxim (theneed to establish objective truth), which determines the most important functions of thecourt, the prosecutor’s office, the police. The author shows that actual approaches andlegal principles reflected in the code under consideration can be used by the modernRussian legislator in the course of further modernization of the Code of CriminalProcedure of the Russian Federation, as well as in the development of the concept of thedevelopment of the domestic criminal process.