The Concept and Structure of Criminal-Organizational Relations

In this article, the author attempts, on the basis of theoretical developments of the general theory of law on organizational norms and the discussion of domestic jurists on criminal procedural relations, to identify a special type of norms and relations in the criminal process system, called criminal-organizational. The task of such norms is to create organizational conditions for the effective functioning of criminal procedural institutions. In this regard, the author examines the prerequisites that contribute to the identification of criminal and organizational relations in the system of criminal procedure. Further, the author examines the functional purpose of criminal-organizational norms and relations in the system of current legislation, examines their internal structure and suggests the appropriate conceptual apparatus for the selected elements of relations. In particular, there are such concepts as “organization of criminal proceedings”, “criminal organizational norms of criminal procedural law”, “object of criminal organizational relations”, “subjects of criminal organizational relations”, “criminal organizational relations in criminal proceedings” in both broad and narrow sense. Further, the author formulates a range of issues related to the sphere of criminal and organizational relations, and also highlights the main directions of their theoretical and practical development. In conclusion, the author formulates a number of proposals for improving the Russian criminal process, taking into account the role of criminal and organizational relations. Conclusions are drawn that criminal organizational relations act as a superstructure to the basic institution and criminal justice in general, allowing it to work properly in accordance with the intention of the legislator. In this regard, the author proposes to distinguish criminal-organizational relations as a kind of legal relations with a number of features that require reflection in the presentation of laws and other regulatory legal acts, i.e. to introduce new rules of legislative technique. Proceeding from this, it is proposed to separate the criminal organizational norms into an independent section of the legislative act (Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), which, according to the author, will significantly simplify law enforcement practice and will contribute to the qualitative improvement of the work of criminal procedural institutions and criminal proceedings as such.