Yastrebov, V.B. Functions of the prosecutor in the criminal judicial proceedings (the past and the modern time: some lessons of the Judicial Reform of 1864)

Abstract: The article concerns the functions of the prosecutor in the criminal process as an important and necessary element of the guarantees of human rights. These functions are defined as an obligation of a prosecutor official to perform certain types of procedural activities reflecting the public law purpose of the prosecution in the sphere of guarantees of lawfulness in investigation of crimes and criminal judicial proceedings in court. The author provides comparative legal analysis of the competence of a prosecutor in current Russian legislation and the Charter of Criminal Judicial Proceedings of 1864, Establishment of Judicial Institutions of the Russian Empire. The author analyzes the results of the Judicial Reform of 1864, which provided for the formation of the Russian school of public prosecutors. The methodology of the comparative historical legal studies was formed by the dialectic method and the general and special cognition methods, which were based upon it. The scientific novelty of the article is due to the original view of the author of the existing problems in the sphere of guarantees of lawfulness in the Russian criminal judicial proceedings and role of prosecutor in such guarantees. He provides an analysis substantiated with the studies of criminal procedural legislation of the Russian Empire and the modern Russia, stating that there is need to use the existing positive experience in the sphere of prosecutor activities, he also provides additional arguments regarding mistaken character of the novelties in the Federal Law of June 5, 2007 N. 87-FZ “On Amendments into the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law “On the Prosecution of the Russian Federation” which considerably abridged the competence of the prosecutor.

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