The Jury Trial Today: An Indicator of the Evolution of the Russian Democratic State

The paper substantiates the point of view according to which society’s satisfaction with state power and the public’s trust in it directly depend on the quality of the criminal proceedings, its effectiveness and its provision with real guarantees of fair justice. Here, the state faces the most pressing, urgent tasks in the field of protecting the rights, freedoms, interests of society and the individual. At the same time, society’s demand for justice comes to the fore. If it is satisfied, then criminal proceedings receive serious support and trust from citizens, and gain a high level of legitimacy. The same applies to relevant state institutions and the state as a whole. The government achieves a particularly high degree of such support if it ensures the real, direct participation of the population in the administration of justice — in resolving matters of national importance. It is proposed to consider a trial with the participation of jurors as one of the main indicators of the development of the Russian democratic state. The paper examines the problems of its real relevance on the part of the state and society, its ability to bring to life the conceptual and moral principles embedded in this institution. For methodological purposes, the jury trial is proposed to be considered as a kind of model of interaction between the state and society, primarily in matters of the real distribution of power between them here. Based on this, taking into account law enforcement practice, based on statistical research data, the author analyzes the weaknesses and defects of this form of legal proceedings. As a result, it is concluded that the state is not ready to fully entrust the authorities in the administration of justice to the population. Approaches to solving the identified problems and determining the vector of development of the Russian jury trial and the state as a whole are proposed.

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