The study of cassation appeals by the cassation court judges

According to current criminal procedure legislation, the study of cassation appeals by the cassation court judges is an independent stage of cassation procedure. The purpose of the stage is the preliminary examination of a cassation appeal in order to ensure the certainty of judgement and prevent any unfounded review of a valid sentence. The analysis of the order of standard operating procedures for a judge established in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (CPC of RF) has enabled us to find some drawbacks and propose the ways for their elimination. Firstly, there is criticism concerning the established order of a cassation appeal study by a single cassation court judge. In this case the judge examines whether a cassation appeal meets the formal requirements of law and if there are grounds for the review of judgement in a cassation instance. Thus, it is necessary to provide in the CPC of the RF for the study of a cassation appeal by the panel of three judges in the absence of other persons (in regional courts) since this will ensure greater impartiality in passing a final judgement at this stage. The second drawback is the absence of compulsory provisions in terms of the writ of certiorari. A literal interpretation of the rules of CPC of RF presumes the possibility of dismissing a cassation appeal without studying all the materials of a criminal case and ascertaining the objective grounds for cassation. Consequently, it is necessary to fix the obligation of the writ of certiorari when studying a cassation to ensure the possibility of a full audit of the disputed judgement. Another drawback of legislative regulation of the above stage of cassation procedure is the absence of direct reference to the limits of verification of a complaint. Despite the existence of the rule of full audit of all the materials of a criminal case, such a rule influences only the activities of cassation courts but not the judges who study appeals. Thus, it should be noted directly that judges shall study a disputed judgement in full and they are not bound by the arguments given in cassation appeals. The last but not the least drawback of the order of court procedure at this stage is the lack of equal possibilities for appealing the decrees of both regional and Supreme Court judges to dismiss a cassation complaint. To eliminate such inequality it is necessary to include the decrees to dismiss a cassation complaint into the set of judgements which can be appealed by way of judicial supervision.

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