Legal Risks of Criminal Proceedings in the Pandemic Period

Abstract

One of the global challenges of 2020 was the spread of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), which turned out to be the most severe stressful factor for all spheres of public relations. The pandemic contributed to an increase in the number of risks, some of which caused evident harm to many social institutions and systems, and some risks were an incentive for their forced rapid development. The paper studies the risks in the field of criminal justice to recognize typical legal risks and identify new ones caused by the pandemic period. The study identified the existing legal risks in the sphere of criminal proceedings, found out the factors causing additional legal risks during a pandemic, and the legal consequences of such risks. In the study, the authors adhere to the general theoretical concept of risk as a legal phenomenon capable of generating favorable and unfavorable legal consequences. The authors agree with the recognition of the risky nature of the criminal procedure and the right to risk as a resource necessary for the implementation of criminal procedural functions. In the aggregate, it is possible to refer risks in criminal procedure to the procedural risks and to distinguish typical ones among them: the risk of making procedural decisions, risk of performing the defender’s function, professional risk in the investigator’s activity, and the corruption risk. The authors propose to classify specific risks of the pandemic period depending on the resulting consequences, into negative and positive ones. The paper lists some of the most obvious risks of criminal proceedings that have arisen in the context of the spread of the new coronavirus infection.