Pre-trial criminal proceedings: concept, essence, content and structure

The paper presents a critical analysis of the current legal regulation of the first part of criminal proceedings indicated in the law as pre-trial proceedings. Having analyzed the legal and regulatory concept of pre-trial proceedings and the types of criminal-procedural activity that make up its content – preliminary investigation and criminal prosecution – the author proposes to enshrine the law enforcement orientation of pre-trial proceedings and its focus on the formation of state prosecution through the investigation and disclosure of crimes. This determines a new understanding of the pre-trial part of criminal proceedings as a set of administrative and investigative activities that are organizationally and functionally separate from judicial proceedings. Analyzing the content of the preliminary investigation and its close objectively existing connection with domestic intelligence activities, the author reveals the interaction existing between them in achieving common goals in the fight against crime, as well as the fundamental differences manifesting themselves in the methods of identifying the circumstances of the crime committed. If the body carrying out domestic intelligence activities solves a crime, i.e. receives actual information about the circumstances of the crime and the persons who committed it, then the preliminary investigation body identifies the circumstances of the crime through collecting a sufficient cumulative accusatory evidence in a way guaranteeing the respect for the constitutional rights and freedoms of the participants in the criminal process. The results of the study allowed determining the place and role of preliminary investigation bodies in the fight against crime, identifying the goals achieved by the investigation body in pre-trial proceedings, justifying their exclusion from the circle of participants in the prosecution and the need to single out one more stage in pre-trial proceedings logically following the preliminary investigation – the stage of criminal prosecution (accusation), within the framework of which the prosecutor’s accusatory activity in pre-trial proceedings begins through the formation of the subject of future legal proceedings – the state prosecution.