The Need for the Institution of a Pretrial Cooperation Agreement (Pretrial Plea Agreement) in the Russian Criminal Procedure

Abstract

With the advent of the institution of a pre-trial cooperation agreement in Russian criminal and criminal procedure law, disputes about the need for its introduction and use in Russian criminal proceedings have not subsided. After all, a pre-trial cooperation agreement is an attempt to introduce into continental criminal proceedings, to which the Russian one belongs, an institution traditional for the Anglo-Saxon criminal process. In the paper, the author argues that this institution is not alien to the Russian criminal process, has already found its place in it, and judicial practice confirms that it is to a certain extent incorporated into the modern Russian criminal process. At the same time, taking into account the legal nature of the Russian criminal process, we consider it possible to supplement the special procedure provided for in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation for making a judicial decision when making a pre-trial cooperation agreement with the right of the court at a court hearing to investigate the issues of evidence of the act that is incriminated to the person who concluded the pre-trial cooperation agreement, to the extent that the court deems necessary and sufficient for passing a fair, reasonable and lawful sentence, and then assessing the extent of his cooperation with the investigation. In our opinion, the institution of a pre-trial cooperation agreement provides great opportunities for a voluntary, non-confrontational, peaceful settlement of a criminal conflict within the framework of criminal proceedings and is one of the tools of the compensatory model of criminal proceedings we suggest.