The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Realization of the Constitutional Rights and Freedoms of Criminal Proceedings' Participants

Abstract

The recent emergence of such new previously unknown threats to the state, the society and the individual that are not provided for in the key documents on strategic development of the Russian Federation as the pandemic of COVID-19 will lead to long-term unpredictable consequences and make a considerable impact on all spheres of activity. In the future, other previously unknown and equally dangerous infectious diseases may emerge and crisis situations may develop. The goal of this study is to identify the problem areas of criminal proceedings in crisis situations and to develop research-based and practically relevant recommendations aimed at ensuring the constitutional rights and freedoms of criminal proceedings participants in an emergency situation, a lockdown introduced to protect the life and health of these participants as well as people they contact with, regardless of their procedural legal status. Specific tasks of the study: 1) to identify the special features of Russian legislation that regulate the procedure of the preliminary investigation and the court inquiry of a criminal case that permit distance participation of any criminal case participants; 2) to analyze the results of the work of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation that took into account the threats that the pandemic poses to the state, the individual and the society; 3) to present the views of Russian and foreign researchers of court proceedings on the analyzed sphere of activities; 4) to study the international experience connected with the impact of infectious diseases on criminal justice; 5) to present recommendations regarding the future development of legislation and improvement of the practice of law enforcement aimed at ensuring the constitutional rights and freedoms of the participants of criminal proceedings in the conditions of emergency. The methodological basis of research is the dialectical method of cognition, the general research methods of abstracting, analysis and synthesis, as well as specific legal methods: comparative-legal, logical-legal, etc. The authors have come to the conclusion that COVID-19 pandemic had a considerable influence on the introduction of new information and communication technologies into the criminal court proceedings. The existing situation convincingly demonstrates that it is necessary to search for new conceptual ideas and technologies, to use them in the doctrine of criminal procedure law and to develop research-based suggestions on improving legislation and the practice of law enforcement, which will effectively ensure the constitutional rights and freedoms of the subjects of criminal procedure relations in the conditions of isolation, including a right to a fair trial and access to justice. The authors argue for the expediency of modernizing legislation, for the transition of court proceedings from a simple written form to the electronic one, as well as to the paper-free interaction of all criminal proceedings participants.

Formation of the trial jury in the period of the pandemic: Russian and foreign experience

“…It is generally recognised that the use of digital technologies meets these requirements to the greatest extent, including the organisation of off-site court hearings and the interaction of all participants in the criminal process in a paper-free format [9][10][11][12][13]. This allows for due enforcement of justice and secures confidence in the judiciary system in the conditions when courts have to suspend litigation of certain cases [14,15].…”

Digitalization of criminal proceedings in Russia and on the international stage

“…O. I. Andreeva and O. A. Zaitsev consider it necessary to simplify the use of electronic signatures using a graphic tablet and a writing pen (Andreeva et al, 2020). The issue of spreading electronic interaction mechanisms to all forms of legal proceedings was considered by I. S. Denisov (Denisov, 2018).…”