The Legacy of Classical Russian Cassation in Criminal Cases and Its Contemporary Meaning

Modern criminal cassation continues the traditions of the classic Russian cassation, since some pre-revolutionary legislative ideas and cassation court experiences have not lost their significance nowadays. A comparative study reveals the valuable experience that can be used by new courts of cassation. This research focuses on criminal procedural relations in the process of implementing the norms of criminal procedural law governing the cassation proceedings in the criminal process. The research draws on provisions of the pre-revolutionary criminal procedural legislation, pre-revolutionary legal literature, and the current criminal procedural legislation. The purpose of the research is to investigate the specificity of the classical Russian cassation in terms of cassation check, court cassation powers, and reasons for decision cancellation to determine whether they are applicable in modern times. The author uses historical and comparative legal analysis to study Russian historical forms of cassation proceedings. The formal legal method is used to analyse the texts of the normative legal acts regulating cassation proceedings. The use of cassation check for the final court decision will increase the stability of court decisions in criminal cases, since it will outline a strict framework of appeal for the parties and the limits of rights for a cassation court. A term for cassation can be specified only if the concept of the effective date of the court decision is modified and multiple cassation instances is excluded. The restriction on the cassation depending on whether the applicant has previously appealed is consistent with the principle of broad freedom of appeal and will help relieve cassation courts of general jurisdiction from obviously unfounded complaints.

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