INVESTIGATING JUDGE UNDER THE FRENCH CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

Abstract

The investigating judge was first mentioned in the French Code of Criminal Procedure in 1808, and then in other countries, including Russia, where a similar procedural person was called a court investigator and was abolished in the early years of Soviet power. Currently, there is a debate in national jurisprudence about the return of the court investigator, showing the ambiguous attitude to this problem. The purpose of the article is to analyze the current state of legal regulation of the institute of investigating judges in the French criminal procedure legislation in order to determine the effectiveness of the performance of its tasks; as well as the nature of criminal procedure relations between the participants of the French criminal proceedings in comparison to similar national ones. The findings make it possible to present a coherent, logical, time-tested construction of the institution of the investigating judge. These activities are characterized by much more detailed regulation, including in the interests of the defense, with a general focus on the protection of individual rights, the exclusion of accusatory bias and the existence of effective safeguards for this purpose. The article shows the real possibilities of the investigating judge to exercise his autonomy and independence from the prosecutor. At the same time, such regulation is sufficiently effective to achieve an objective approach.  Other positive consequences are possible in the form of elements of attorney investigation and the deposit of certain types of evidence.