Pre-Trial Investigation: Foreign Experience and Practice of Application in Ukraine

The article deals with legal regulation of the stage of pre-trial investigation in common law and civil law countries to introduce a positive experience in national criminal procedural legislation. Peculiarities of criminal procedure in civil law and common law countries have been identified. It has been established that during establishment of modern national legal systems three forms of criminal procedure exist. They are: searching, adversary and mixed. During analysis of pre-trial investigation in foreign countries it has been identified that the development of investigation in modern world has two features: attempts to approve general standards of criminal procedure and keeping of investigation process taking into account national legal traditions. It has been stressed that analysis of legal regulation of investigation gave an opportunity to realize the essence of the researched problems, to find out strong and weak sides of cooperation between bodies which participate in investigation and can have a positive impact during reforming of national legislation. It has been established that international experience of pre-trial investigation and some peculiarities prove the need to develop certain provisions of criminal procedural legislation. Following analysis of peculiarities of pre-trial investigation in foreign states it has been concluded that implementation of any reforms does not have to be based on mechanical transfer of certain legal procedures and institutes. Three types of judicial control in foreign criminal procedural codes such as adversary, inquisitorial and mixed have been studied. It has been concluded that the model of national judicial control on the state of pre-trial investigation should refer to a mixed model because the main principle is impartiality of an investigative judge who guarantees observance of rights and interests of parties to pre-trial investigation