Legal Certainty as a Requirement for the Grounds for Closing Criminal Proceedings, Problems of Classification and Differentiation of Consequences
Abstract
Abstract. The article examines the principle of legal certainty as a component of the rule of law in the context of regulatory regulation of the grounds for closing criminal proceedings, provided for in Article 284 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. The doctrinal division of such grounds into rehabilitative and non-rehabilitative, which is used by judicial practice and legal doctrine, but has not received clear regulatory consolidation in criminal procedural legislation, is analyzed. It is substantiated that the absence of a legislatively defined classification in the presence of significantly different legal consequences for the person in respect of whom the proceedings are closed creates a state of legal uncertainty and complicates the implementation of procedural rights, in particular the right to rehabilitation, compensation for damage and protection of reputation. The requirements of the principle of legal certainty as part of the rule of law are disclosed, namely clarity, predictability, ambiguity and proportionality in application to the grounds for closing proceedings. Attention is paid to the issue of differentiation of legal consequences of closure on different grounds: possibility of compensation for damage, restrictions on access to public service and reputational consequences. Through the prism of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Allen v. the United Kingdom, Sekanina v. Austria, Minelli v. Switzerland, the requirements for national legal order to ensure an individual effective protection of his procedural rights after the completion of criminal prosecution are revealed, taking into account the extra-procedural component of the presumption of innocence guaranteed by paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Conclusions are formulated on the need to improve the regulatory regulation of the grounds for closure of criminal proceedings in the direction of a clear differentiation of their legal consequences, ensuring the proportionality of such consequences to the nature of the ground for closure, as well as guaranteeing an individual effective procedural remedies, which will meet the requirements of the principle of legal certainty as an element of the rule of law.
Keywords: legal certainty; rule of law; termination of criminal proceedings; rehabilitative and non-rehabilitative grounds; presumption of innocence; rehabilitation; ECtHR case-law.
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References
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