ENSURING THE VICTIM'S RIGHTS WHEN CONCLUDING A PRE-TRIAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT

Abstract

The widening of the range of abbreviated procedural forms provided for by the current criminal procedure legislation has resulted in a significant difference in the legal status of individual participants in criminal proceedings, depending on which arrangements for criminal proceedings are applied. In particular, the restriction of the victim's rights when concluding a pre-trial cooperation agreement in a criminal case is a cause for concern. In this case, a special trial procedure is applied regardless of the victim’s will. Such a provision is unlikely to be fully consistent with the principle of equality of all before the law and clearly impedes the victim’s access to justice. The purpose of the study is to solve the problem of restricting the victim's rights in the application of special trial procedure in the event of concluding a pre-trial cooperation agreement in a criminal case and to justify the possibility of compensating such a restriction by expanding the victim's right to appeal against a court decision. Methods: the dialectical method serves as the methodological framework for the research. In addition, the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis and systematic approach are used, as well as special legal methods, primarily, logical legal and legal interpretation. Results: the study shows that adequate compensation for the victim's lack of the right to object to the conclusion of a pre-trial cooperation agreement and the subsequent application of special trial procedure may be the possibility of appealing against the sentence on all grounds provided for by law. To this end, it is proposed that the court be required to include in the sentence an analysis and evaluation of all the evidence underlying the court’s findings, even if they were not examined directly in the trial. Such a step would remove the restriction on appellate review of the factual aspect of the judgement.