Características de los procesos penales (investigación previa al juicio y juicio) en el momento de la pandemia covid-19

Larysa Bielik (National University "Odesa Law Academy" (Odesa, Ukraine))
Olena Samoilenko (National University “Odesa Law Academy” (Odesa, Ukraine))
Hanna Mudretska (Odessa State University of Internal Affairs (Odesa, Ukraine))
Tetiana Voloshanivska (Odesa State University of Internal Affairs (Odesa, Ukraine))
Kateryna Titunina (Interagency Organized Crime Research Centre at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (Kiev))

Ius Humani. Law Journal
Vol 9 No 2 (2020): Ius Humani. Law Journal

The work is devoted to the main problems and features that have emerged in the field of criminal justice (pre-trial investigation and trial) in a pandemic. The relevance of this article is that criminal justice, like other areas of human activity, has been affected after the spread of Covid-19 and its recognition as a pandemic. The introduction of quarantine was accompanied by some problematic issues, including uncertainty in the work of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies, lack of a unified approach to court schedules, and the conduct of certain investigative actions. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the peculiarities of criminal proceedings in a pandemic. An explorative and collative methodology (that considers the comparative law) was used. The proposals have been made to address the problems that arise during the pre-trial investigation and criminal proceedings in a pandemic, in particular: the need to allow videoconferencing in criminal proceedings out of court; a list of programs for video communication have been defined; to provide adequate funding for technical re-equipment; to suspend the terms of criminal proceedings, and; to prevent in the future the situation of cancellation of previously adopted decisions on the strengthening of criminal liability for intentional infection.