Criminal procedure without criminalistics and operational search activity: a problematic situation

Nowadays, the following basic methodological questions seem to be unsettled: what criminal procedure and professional operative search activity are; according to what main general laws they exist and develop, what moving force is the source of their development; according to what common factors the inner conviction of a judge and inevitability of punishment in criminal procedure are formed. The choice of the development strategy and tactics of both a professional search procedure and criminal proceedings depend on the solution of the above problems. The Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation stipulates that the data obtained in consequence of operational search activity can serve as evidence in criminal proceedings only after it was confirmed in the course of proving under the established procedure. Nevertheless, there is no conformity between acquisition and collection, documentation and proving, between operational and procedural information. The main reason is the lack of the above categories of operational search activity in the norms of criminal procedural law. Thus, it is necessary to support both scientists and practitioners and emphasize that there is an urgent need to develop the procedure of introducing the information obtained in the course of operational search events into criminal proceedings. Proving in criminal cases ought to involve legal forms of obtaining the information in the course of operational search activity that should be in conformity with adapted criminal procedural form of their use and this must be entrenched in legislation. Nowadays much attention is paid to the science of specific secret activity or operational search activity. It is necessary to admit that introduction of scientific specialty 12.00.09 - the Theory of operational search has enriched both the theory itself and criminal procedure on the whole. At present, the scientific legal workers' Nomenclature needs to be changed: specialty 12.00.09 is to be named "Criminal procedure" while criminalistics, judicial-expert and operational search activities are to be combined under a new specialty 12.00.12. This sounds clearly and uncompromisingly: "Separate, impossible to retain!" However, we need both criminalistics and operational search activity as they are in demand by criminal procedure legally represented by state law enforcement bodies and courts. Our society and state will always lose all lawsuits in the absence of operational search and criminalistics support in criminal procedure. Thus, it seems impossible to separate criminalistics and operational search activity from criminal procedure. I hope that the above phrase should sound like: "Impossible to separate, retain!"

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