Judicial reform in modern Russia: institutional analysis of efficiency and outlook (reform of criminal justice)

The article analyses the judicial reform in contemporary Russia within the institutional approach. The author points out what causes insufficient efficiency of judicial reform and formulates proposals aimed at solution of institutional problems in the criminal proceedings of Russia. The author emphasizes that the current reform of criminal justices fails to take into account sociocul-tural factors of the Russian society, including relations between the state and citizens and institution that are fundamentally different from those in the countries of the common law. Modern Russian criminal trial is currently influenced by the so-called "path dependence": in pre-trial proceedings - because it was the result of institutional deformation of preliminary investigation and inquiry in the 1920s, and in court proceedings - due to the wrong institutional choice of Anglo-American adversarial in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation in 2001. To solve problems of the Russian criminal trial it is necessary to make a fundamental choice between institutional models of pre-trial proceedings (French and German) that are found in the criminal process of the continental Europe, which is closer to Russia, particularly in terms of the institutional architecture. If the pre-trial proceedings in a criminal trial of Russia should be more adversarial, the court proceedings must be more public to bring the system of criminal procedure in the equilibrium position, taking into account Constitutional Court Decision № 16-P of July 2, 2013. The wider publicity of the court should be allowed only in case of further strengthening of the independence of judges and higher openness of justice. The solution of institutional problems of Russian criminal proceedings is possible only within the framework of the new Criminal Procedure Code. In order to avoid mistakes made in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation in 2001, the new code should be based on the development of a legal doctrine reflected in the new Concept of judicial reform.

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