Procedural action - this is the name of a whole range of measures permitted for production within the framework of criminal and civil law. The boundaries of the legality of these actions lie within the framework of the Civil or Criminal Code of a particular country. All activities leading to the preparation of a case for trial may fall under the definition of “procedural action.”
Definition and principles
According to the most common definition, a procedural action can be called the measures provided for by the Law and carried out within its framework, which are performed by authorized citizens in the conduct of criminal proceedings or materials.
All the variety of procedural actions fit into certain principles that serve as a kind of guideline in the administration of justice. Compliance with these guidelines guarantees a voluminous and thorough consideration of cases in court proceedings. All variety of basic proceduralprinciples can be reduced to the following theses:
- Equality of all citizens before the law;
- procedural equality of participants in judicial proceedings;
- combination of collegiate and sole consideration of the case;
- impartiality and independence of judges;
- publicity and openness of the trial.
Preparatory proceedings
Different categories of civil cases have their own specifics, which can be determined by the specifics of the case, the difficulties of collecting evidence, and so on. The procedural action in the civil process is regulated by Article 142 of the Code of Civil Procedure, it contains a list of all possible measures that can be taken during the preparation of the case.
Persons authorized to act procedurally do not have to perform all the actions provided for in this article. It all depends on the individual nuances of each case. For the judge, the procedural action is the following:
- resolving the issue of joining the case of co-defendants, co-plaintiffs and other interested parties;
- Granting permission to seek arbitration before an arbitration tribunal with the right to explain the consequences of such action;
- granting the right to call witnesses to all participants in the process;
- procedural action, consisting of research and necessary forensic examinations;
- forwarding rogatory letters;
- other actions.
Basic norms of civil law
Goodmodern civil law, it is impossible to designate the entire list of procedural acts necessary for the consideration of civil cases. For example, the procedural action in the civil process of the plaintiff determines his active position, which is aimed at protecting material or legally protected interests, for which it is supposed to go to court. The actions of the prosecution in this case are aimed at collecting the evidence base for the correctness of the plaintiff's statement.
At the request of the parties, the judge will demand material or written evidence from organizations or individuals. This norm is one of the principles of adversarial law, which in our time is only beginning to be implemented in domestic legal proceedings. Judicial proceedings in the case of civil claims are as follows:
- demanding various evidence from the owner in order to forward them to the court;
- gathering evidence by letter of request;
- provision of evidence obtained through examinations - judicial or independent;
- obtaining the necessary evidence through inspection.
In accordance with the second part of Article 142 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the judge sends or hands over to the defendant a copy of the plaintiff's statement and the documents attached to it, and also notifies the place and time of the court session in this case. This provision allows the defendant to collect information that explains his position. This is how one of the principles of the procedural action is observed - the equality of the parties to the process, as thisaccepted in modern jurisprudence.
Criminal trial
In the criminal process, each procedural action is reduced to a detailed, deep proof of certain facts selected for future consideration in court. The main method of conducting a criminal process is the analysis of the collected evidence and facts. And to collect the evidence base, procedural actions are applied. This Code of Criminal Procedure designates as investigative procedures necessary for the selection, evaluation and verification of evidence during the preliminary investigation.
Variety of investigative actions can be characterized as an event provided for by criminal procedure law and used to collect and verify evidence, which includes a set of cognitive, search and verification techniques that correspond to the characteristics of the traces of a crime. Also, the above activities should be adapted to the effective detection, perception and consolidation of the necessary evidentiary information.
The basis of investigative actions
Any procedural action in the criminal process is based on the cognitive and credible aspects. This is what distinguishes it from other procedural actions that the investigator conducts in the process of considering the case. All his actions and decisions are subject to certain procedural forms, which means that they are lawful, since they are directly based on criminal procedure laws.
For an investigator, a procedural action iscomprehensive and thorough investigation of the criminal case. In this sense, all actions of the specified authorized person can be called investigative. But the law still distinguishes between a procedural action and an investigative action. The difference is that investigative actions are aimed at collecting, evaluating and using the evidence found, while procedural actions cover the entire procedure - from the collection of evidence to the analysis of physical evidence in the courtroom.
What are investigative measures
The Criminal Procedure Code considers the investigative procedural action as the basic procedure for criminal activity, which is subject to proper regulation by legislative norms. If investigative measures are carried out with violations, then material evidence obtained in this way will not be accepted by the court. For any investigative actions, there are legal requirements provided for by the criminal procedural norms and imposed on the procedure of each of their stages. The regulation of investigative actions, their compliance with the legislative framework is determined by the following general conditions:
- Each investigative action should be carried out by order of the body of inquiry and only after the official initiation of a criminal case.
- Investigative actions are carried out in the presence of good reasons. For example, the investigation obtained information about facts that determine the need to collect and verify the evidence base, so these facts are verified during investigative measures.
- Order and methodthe commission of this or that investigative action and its procedural execution must be carried out in accordance with the current law.
- The full responsibility for conducting the investigation rests with the official who is authorized to investigate this criminal case.
Evidence base
The issuance of a decision on the production of a particular case must be supported by evidence. The decision to conduct a certain investigative action is taken by the investigator or other person who has received the permission (sanction) of the prosecutor. Investigative actions may be carried out by order of the head of the investigative department or at the request of interested persons, for example, the accused, his defense counsel or the victim. The investigator decides on an individual basis whether it is worth making a decision on the performance of investigative actions or starting one or another procedural action. If the petition was denied, this decision must be motivated by the investigator.
When considering minor administrative offenses, the law provides the right to conduct "other procedural actions." This Code of Administrative Offenses regulates quite clearly, but does not indicate what is meant by these measures. In general, they should be reduced to determining the evidence base of the offense, after consideration of which the case is either transferred to court or closed.
The system of investigative proceedings
In modern legal literature there is no unified view of the system of investigative actions, sinceit is impossible to determine those procedural actions that are not quite investigative. Thus, lawyers cannot come to an opinion whether the following are investigative actions:
- seizure of property;
- exhumation of corpses;
- crime reconstruction;
- medical examination of the victim.
The difficulty lies in the fact that when carrying out these actions, the investigator observes the procedural norm of their production, but does not receive evidentiary information. For example, the fact that a corpse was removed from its final resting place, for example, proves nothing.
On the other hand, many procedural actions provided for by law are quite suitable for obtaining evidence and can become part of the general system of investigative actions. This is:
- apprehension of the suspect;
- receiving samples for comparative laboratory testing;
- Checking available samples on site.
From this it follows that when a suspect is detained in accordance with Art. 122 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, if this event is in direct connection with the detected signs of a crime, the grounds, time and place of detention acquire evidentiary value.
Procedural terms
Any procedural action for which a deadline is set must be completed after the time allotted for the collection of evidence. Time limits for proceedings maybe established by law or may be ordered by a court. The procedural term is determined by the date, an indication of the committed event or the period of time allotted for these actions.
The end of the procedural period depends on the procedure for calculating the period of time allotted for the process. For example, if a procedural action is extended over several years, its end is the full date (day, month) of the last year of the entire period. If the term is calculated in calendar months, its end will coincide with the last month of the term.
Procedural action, the boundary period of which is set by procedural terms, can be completed a day before its end. For example, if complaints, petitions or money were made within 24 hours of the last day of the deadline, then these actions are not overdue, and the deadline for completing procedural procedures has not been missed. But if the procedural action must be performed in a court or other public place, the deadline for its completion depends on the final minute of the working hours of this institution.
The right to conduct procedural measures is annulled after the expiration of the time established by law or appointed by the court. If decisions or documents submitted after the expiration of the term of the procedural action are brought to the court, they are not considered. The exception is documents submitted after a request for an extension of the procedural time limits, which was approved by the court.
Extension
If the proceedings weresuspended, along with this, the time for consideration of the case is also suspended. If it is resumed, then the course of the procedural time limits continues, and the deadline is postponed to a later date.
If the person responsible for the procedural action missed the deadline for good reasons, the court may set another date for the end of the procedural actions. An application for an extension is submitted to the court in which the action was to be considered. All interested parties must be notified in advance of a possible extension of the procedural action. If they fail to appear in court, this will not result in the suspension of proceedings being dismissed.
Simultaneously with the submission of a request for an extension of the time limits for a procedural action, a petition may be filed to challenge the extension or a complaint of deliberate delay in the investigation.
