PROCEDURAL ACTIVITY OF THE PROSECUTOR AT THE STAGE OF JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS IN THE COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS ON CRIMINAL MISDEMEANORS

Abstract

Over the past decades, a problem has arisen regarding excessive workload in
courts of first instance, including criminal proceedings (criminal cases) under consideration. In
order to rationalize the judicial consideration of criminal proceedings, it became necessary to
change approaches to their consideration and differentiate depending on the severity of the crime
committed. In this regard, together with the adoption in 2012 of the Criminal Procedure Code of
Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the CPC of Ukraine), the legislator used the concept of a
criminal offense instead of a crime, which included a crime and a new category – a criminal misdemeanor.
However, the simplified consideration of criminal misdemeanors began to function only
on July 1, 2020, with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative
Acts of Ukraine on Simplifying Pre-Trial Investigation of Certain Categories of Criminal
Misdemeanors” No. 2617-VIII dated 11/22/2018.
This article examines the general features of simplified judicial proceedings for criminal
misdemeanors, the correlation between the concepts of “state prosecution” and “public prosecution”,
the procedural activities of the prosecutor at the stage of judicial proceedings in the court of
first instance in criminal proceedings for criminal misdemeanors conducted in the general procedure
and in simplified proceedings. Problematic practical issues related to the features of conducting
simplified proceedings for criminal misdemeanors and the prosecutor’s maintenance of public
prosecution for such categories of criminal proceedings have been identified.
The article conducts a systematic analysis of the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine,
the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code of Ukraine), the
Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine “On the Prosecutor’s Office” (hereinafter
referred to as the Law of Ukraine “On the Prosecutor’s Office” and the Order of the Prosecutor
General’s Office dated 30.09.2021 No. 309 “On the Organization of the Activities of Prosecutors in
Criminal Proceedings” (hereinafter referred to as the Order of the Prosecutor General’s Office No.
309 “On the Organization of the Activities of Prosecutors in Criminal Proceedings”), the case law
of the Cassation Criminal Court of the Supreme Court (hereinafter referred to as the CCC of the
Supreme Court). The article also examines the positive and negative features of the application of
the norms of criminal procedural legislation in practice.