10 YEARS SINCE THE ADOPTION OF THE CODE OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIHUANIA: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PROBLEMS IN THE PREATRIAL STAGE

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##

PDF
Published Oct 1, 2013

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##

Petras Ancelis
Mykolas Romeris University

Abstract

May 1, 2013 earmarks a 10 year period since the adoption of major Acts of the Republic of Lithuania regulating criminal prosecution, namely Act No. VIII1968 or the Criminal adopted on September 26, 2000, Act No. IX785 or the Code of Criminal Procedure and Act No. IX994 or the Code of the Enforcement of Sentences adopted on June 27, 20021. The present article deals with the major elements of and distinctions between pretrial procedures regulated by the old and modern Criminal Codes of the Republic of Lithuania. Other legal Acts, particularly recommendations approved by Prosecutor General's ordinances, are also analyzed. Additionally, the article addresses amendments and modifications to the Code of Criminal Procedure made before midOctober 2013. The survey reveals that during the last decade, 37 amendments and modifications have been made to over 360 articles of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The article specifically focuses on the purpose and models of the pretrial investigation and legal statuses, interaction and results of actual performance of the subjects involved into the process. The summary of the ten year changes in the regulation of the pretrial procedures comes up with the assumption that apart from some positive shifts in the regulation of the criminal procedure, essential changes validating pretrial investigator's greater autonomy and lesser dependence on the prosecution office and a more consistent model of the prosecutor's role mostly preconditioning the poor results of the criminal prosecution are still to be adopted. The article specifies essential problems to be addressed in the procedural regulation of the pretrial stage: a clear determination of the procedural roles of the subjects involved into criminal proceedings (in particular, the roles of the investigator, chief investigator, pretrial investigator and the prosecutor), relevant and optimal correlations of the roles and improvement of the legal status of the aggrieved party.

##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##

Issue
No. 10 (2013): Public Security and Public Order (10)
Section
Articles

Authorship Responsibility and Authors' Statements

The authors must submit the Author's Guarantee Form, declaring that the article submitted to Public Security and Public Order is an original work and has neither been published nor is under consideration for publication elsewhere. More so, the work has been carried out by the authors and the article does not contravene any existing copyright or any other third party rights. The AUTHOR'S GUARANTEE FORM could be found HERE

Authors contributing to Public Security and Public Order agree to publish their articles allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it with a condition of proper referencing; the authors contributing agree to transfer all copyright ownership of the manuscript to the Public Security and Public Order.