THE WAIVER OF A RIGHT TO EXERCISE JUSTICE: LEGAL NATURE AND CONTENT

The paper presents the results of legal research on the involvement of citizens in the administration of justice during criminal proceedings. The existing Russian criminal procedure legislation provides for a relevant procedure. However, some aspects of citizens’ participation in the administration of justice in the sphere of criminal proceedings, for today, are regulated insufficiently, which causes certain difficulties by an executor of law. The study focuses attention on the special constitutional and legal significance of such participation as a form of interaction of the state and society on the whole. The authors consider the participation of citizens in the administration of justice both as a constitutional guarantee of the defense of human and civil rights and freedoms in the Russian Federation and concerning the procedural support of the corresponding right of a criminal procedure participant. The paper states that citizens’ participation in the administration of justice is characterized to a greater degree by their rights than by responsibility. The authors justify the conclusion on the necessity of different interpretations of the concepts of civil duty and legal duty. Such attitude is proved by the fact that the imposed form of participation in justice does not make impossible the juror’s intentional violation of bans stipulated towards a juror. The paper pays attention to the study of the process of trial jury formation in criminal proceedings. The authors identified and analyzed the reasons for citizens’ unwillingness to exercise this right. The study considers both the admissible not contradictory to legal rules forms of such denial and its covert types hindering the administration of justice. It is identified that the waiver of a right to exercise justice can be caused both by objective and subjective factors. Based on the analysis of statistical data and with the account of the examples from judicial practice, the authors justify the necessity of further improvement of norms of the current legislation in ensuring the citizens’ participation in the administration of justice.