The article is dedicated to the impact of the EU law on development of Latvian criminal procedural law norms. It provides a general insight into importance of the EU criminal procedure law in the development of the Criminal Procedure Law norms, the directives of the European Council and the Parliament, the norms of which have been transposed into the Criminal Procedure Law, and the system of procedural guarantees for the participants of proceedings in need of protection, with particular focus on victims with specific protection needs.
The article deals with the presumption of innocence as one of the basic principles of criminal procedure. It outlines the legal framework of this principle, the current issues, but basically and above all focuses on the question of whether the presumption of innocence is a presumption in the usual sense of the word, what the assumption itself is, and what it really means, and the purpose of this principle. Attention is drawn to the presumption of innocence as a requirement for specific criminal proceedings. Describing the objective of the presumption of innocence, it is agreed that, alongside the protection of the rights of a particular person, this principle is also of a benefit to society as a means of strengthening the rule of law. Analyzing what the presumption of innocence is intended to support, it is agreed that this fundamental principle of criminal procedure implies recognition of the assumption of innocence as opposed to the non-presumption of guilt. It is also acknowledged that in examining the presumption of innocence, it is important that a person cannot be "legally recognized" nor "considered" as guilty until proven guilty according to law. If the first prevents the attribution of legal and other consequences to a person who has not yet been convicted of having committed a criminal offense, the other ensures appropriate treatment of the person during the proceedings.Atslēgvārdi: nevainīguma prezumpcija, kriminālprocesa pamatprincips, personas tiesības kriminālprocesā, tiesiskuma stiprināšana Keywords: presumption of innocence, fundamental principle of criminal procedure, rights of a person in criminal proceedings, strengthening of the rule of law
IevadsNevainīguma prezumpcijai ir acīmredzami neapstrīdama loma retorikā, kas ieskauj kriminālprocesu.(Antony Duff, 2013)Nevainīguma prezumpcija tiek uzskatīta par vienu no kriminālprocesa pamatprincipiem, kura nepieciešamība ir vispārpieņemta. Bieži vien šis princips tiek uztverts kā pašsaprotams, tai pašā laikā tā dziļāka analīze nereti izpaliek. Šis
The quality criteria for the provisions of criminal law follow from Art. 90 and the second sentence of Art. 92 of the Satversme [Constitution] of the Republic of Latvia. A person may be recognised as being guilty and punished only for such actions that have been recognised as being criminal in accordance with law. A person’s fundamental right to know his or her rights defines the framework for the legislator’s actions because only such a provision that complies with all the quality criteria of a legal provision may be recognised as being a law, i.e., as having been granted legal force. These fundamental rights require the legislator to take special care in drafting legal norms that envisage criminal liability, which is the most severe form of legal liability. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia has repeatedly engaged in assessing the quality of criminal law provisions. This study provides an insight into the Constitutional Court’s approach to reviewing the clarity of criminal law provisions and summarizes the most important findings made by the Constitutional Court regarding this issue.
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