On the role of the court in proving in the modern criminal process of the Russian Federation

The paper dwells on the problem of reasonableness of a court decision. The current Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation does not provide for the powers of the court to independently demand any evidence and requires the judge only to ensure adversariality and equality of the parties and to evaluate the totality of evidence in the criminal case. It seems that the court should not be bound by the position of “adversarial” subjects of the process (parties) and confine itself to examining the evidence presented by them. The court's right to demand missing evidence can not be interpreted solely as a continuation of the justification of the accusational thesis. The court as an organ of justice must definitely determine the real circumstances of the act. The Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation should be supplemented with a rule providing for the right of the court at the end of the judicial investigation, when the prosecutor and defender have presented evidence, to discuss the issue of demanding any evidence that the judge deems necessary to properly resolve the criminal case and to remove doubts about any circumstances subject to proof, and also give the court the right to demand written and material evidence necessary for the correct resolution of the criminal offense and to summon a witness of the act on its own initiative.

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