Human Rights Defence Institution and Resuming Criminal Case Due to New and Revealed Facts

Abstract

Shatalov Alexander - Professor, Department of Judicial Power and Justice Administration, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Juridical Sciences. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: asshatalov@hse.ru.

The article analyzes the human rights defence potential and resuming investigation due to new orrevealed circumstances. The paper studies the essence of judicial examination as the most efficientway of rectifying judicial mistakes. In particular, with the resumption of legal proceedings due to newcircumstances, the court ensures not the compensation of judicial activity but a possibility to studythe facts relevant to determine grounds and limits of criminal law security but could not be part of theinvestigation on the criminal case. The author argues that this mechanism can and should be used bydefault to eliminate violations but not when the possibilities to rectify them this sort of cases had beenspent, the mechanism should not be deemed optional. Legal potential of the institution of resuminga case due to new or revealed circumstances is considered rather high. It has been determined bythe types of judicial mistakes. Unlike the common view in Russian literature on legal proceedings,the author thinks that the procedural mechanism does not have anything exceptional. It is applied notafter the possibility to review the case runs out but independently, i.e. as soon as new circumstanceswere disclosed. The potential of human rights defence is seen in the successive and more efficientprocedures of eliciting judicial mistakes and authorize parties concerned with the right to appeal to acourt to review the sentence or another judgement.