The parties as participants in the international criminal proceedings

Abstract

The article analyzes the historical prerequisites for the development of the concept of the parties as participants in the international criminal process. The analysis of the documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, ICTY, ICTR, ICC confirms the thesis that the main parties in the international criminal process are the prosecution and defense. In the model of the international criminal process, the classical approach to the understanding of competition is adopted. There is a structural evolution of the foundations of this approach, the Rome Statute of the ICC defined the rights and obligations of the victims and the third party. The purpose of the study is to consider and resolve problematic aspects of the legal status of the parties in international criminal proceedings. Based on the tasks and goals set, the author has chosen the methodological basis of the study. General scientific methods of cognition are used: analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, induction. The author actively applied the formal legal method. The scientific novelty of the study is to reflect the holistic criminal procedural characteristics of the parties to the defense, prosecution, victims, as well as third parties as participants in criminal proceedings in international criminal proceedings. Analyzing the current structural evolution of the model of international criminal procedure, it is possible not only to predict the further expansion of the functionality of the parties, but also to observe the crystallization of the status of a third party. This course of evolution of the international criminal process demonstrates the probable direction of the development of the theory of parties in the science of criminal procedure.