Russia's Criminal Procedure Code Five Years Out

Abstract

AbstractAfter a long delay in drafting, a new Criminal Procedure Code for Russia was passed in 2001 and went into effect in 2002. The new Code contains some striking innovations, most notably changes at the trial stage, which implement the constitutional requirement of adversarial principles. However, it also preserves several remnants of the past, particularly its preservation of the formal pretrial investigation, during which evidence is analyzed and compiled in a dossier, which then dominates the trial of the case. The result is that old and new constantly contend with each other. Implementation of the new adversarial procedures is also made difficult by the enormity of the changes demanded by them. This article examines these and other issues in the new Code's implementation over its first five years of operation.