THE RIGHT OF THE PUBLIC ON PUBLICLY HEARD AND OPEN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS IN THE CONTEXT OF PREVENTING CORRUPTION AND ECONOMIC CRIME BY JUDICIAL POWER

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is the system analysis of legal, organizational, and procedural mechanisms of the realization of the right of the public and mass media on their participation in transparent and open criminal proceedings in the context of preventing corruption and economic crimes within the system of judicial power, as well as the development of scientifically substantiated recommendations for the improvement of the current legislation of Ukraine on the judicial system taking into account the most advanced international practices. The interconnectedness of effective implementation of the principles of transparency and openness of criminal proceedings with the restoration of trust in the judicial system from the side of civil society has been substantiated. Methodology. To solve the tasks set in the dissertation, the authors have used a complex of general and special scientific methods. Logical and cognitive methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction) made it possible to study general conditions for the organization and procedure of the implementation of the principles of transparency and openness during the cassation appeal of decisions in criminal proceedings. The system and structural method has assisted to determine the essential and content characteristics of the principles of transparency and openness within criminal proceedings, as well as to reveal their significance and correlation while ensuring the judiciary by the cassation court. The formal and legal method made it possible to reveal the proper legal procedure for implementing the principles of transparency and openness during the criminal proceedings by the cassation court. Modelling method allowed determining the ways to improve the legislation on the judiciary and criminal procedural legislation in part to more effective implementation of the principles of transparency and openness in the criminal procedure of Ukraine. The comparative and legal method was used in clarifying the relationship between the levels of domestic and international legal regulation of the implementation of the principles of transparency and openness of criminal proceedings. Experimental methods were used to construct grounded theoretical and applied provisions that adequately reflect the features and interrelations of the processes of implementing the principles of transparency and openness within criminal proceedings, confirmation or refutation of certain concepts, views, their examination by means of thought or subject experimentation based on practice criteria. Result of solving this purpose is to form the author’s understanding that members of the public (the general public) and mass media cannot be holders of jurisdictional rights, that is, those rights that are exercised in the course of court proceedings by involved persons as a result of their criminal procedural status (parties and other participants in criminal proceedings). That is, members of the public and the general public, as well as members of mass media, who are not entitled to the right for public court proceedings but are subjects to the right to obtain information about public court proceedings, the administration of transparent and open justice. Practical implications. Ensuring reliable public control over the judiciary through the widespread use of mass media will effectively prevent corruption and commission of economic crimes by the judges. Value/originality. Amendments and alterations to the national legislation on the judiciary and the Criminal Procedural Code have been offered, which would facilitate the more effective implementation of the right to transparent and open court proceedings by the public and mass media, ensure public control over the judiciary in the exercise of its procedural activities, and guarantee the right of every one to obtain information on the administration of justice in line with European standards.

Keywords

• publicity principle, transparency principle, corruption, economic crimes, criminal judicial system, criminal procedure