CONSTITUTIONAL-LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE ADVERSARIAL PRINCIPLE IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

Abstract

The purpose of writing this article is to examine issues related to the concept, essence and characteristics of the adversarial principle. At the same time, it should be noted that in the article, the issue of the role of the adversarial principle in ensuring the constitutional rights and freedoms of people and citizens within the framework of criminal procedural activities was studied by conducting comparative analyses in a special manner. Also, by examining the mutual analysis of the adversarial principle with the principle of equality of rights of the parties, an attempt was made to determine the constitutional legal bases for protecting the interests of the defense and the prosecution during the implementation of the adversarial principle. At the same time, the characteristics of the adversarial principle in terms of the realization of the parties' opportunity to express their positions in the process during the adversarial principle were analyzed in detail and extensively. In terms of its impact on human rights and freedoms, criminal procedure is one of the areas of law that is most in need of regulation. Such regulation should be implemented in accordance with constitutional norms. Constitutional norms are reflected in the principles of criminal procedure and thus play the role of initial provisions for other norms. One of such principles of criminal procedure is the adversarial principle. In this article, the author conducted a constitutional and legal analysis of the principle of adversarial proceedings in criminal proceedings. At the same time, the author extensively referred to theoretical literature, as well as court decisions, and put forward his own ideas. Issues related to the introduction of the adversarial institution into criminal proceedings were examined as one of the most important features of our new criminal procedural legislation. The adversarial principle was also established in various procedural legislative acts adopted later. In the course of the national criminal procedural legislative reforms, its authors went along the path of further improvement and democratization of the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan in accordance with international standards. Thus, the inclusion of adversarial procedures in criminal proceedings became one of the important elements of criminal procedural legislative reforms and significantly changed the role of the judge, prosecutor and lawyer in the course of the process. The Criminal Procedure Code attributed the adversarial proceedings of
the prosecution and defense parties in criminal proceedings to the main principles and conditions of criminal proceedings.
In general, the adversarial principle is enshrined as a principle of criminal proceedings in Part VII of Article 127 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Article 14.3 of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 6.3 of the ECHR.