Court costs in the criminal process of Ukraine: the concept and structure

The article analyses the existing approaches to the definition of court (procedural) costs in the criminal process in Ukraine. The author defines the notion of court (procedural), their structure, the order of compensation and characteristics of compensation (indemnification) of costs and remuneration to persons who participate in the implementation of criminal and judicial proceedings. The author also introduces the institution of procedural costs which result from criminal proceedings, because the latter is accompanied by significant material costs, most of which are paid by the state, while the other part is paid by certain participants of the proceedings. Therefore, the problem of compensation of procedural costs is relevant in terms of various factors: the financial status of the parties to the criminal proceedings; financial support of the law enforcement activities, and so on. Topical are the problems of the definition and the structure of procedural costs, because the new Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine does not give answers to them, which has become the cause for much debate among scholars, practitioners and specialists of criminal procedural law. The legislator has expanded the range of court costs compared to those stated in the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine in 1960, because in accordance with Art. 91 of the Code the court costs consist of: 1) the sums that were paid or were supposed to be paid to witnesses, victims, experts, specialists, translators and attesting witnesses; 2) the sums spent on storage, shipment and examination of material evidence; 3) other expenses made by the bodies of inquiry, pre-trial investigation and court in the exercise of the case. In addition, court expenses also include the costs associated with the provision of the international legal assistance in the territory of Ukraine (Art. 93-2 of the Code). This decision of the legislator has not only expanded the content of the court (procedural) costs in the criminal proceedings in Ukraine, but also created additional guarantees for the compensation of material expenses that are incurred by the participants in the criminal proceedings.

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