To the legal nature of judgments of the European Court on Human Rights

The article deals with the legal nature of judgments of the European Court on Human Rights. In the Russian theory of the criminal procedure law legal nature of judgments of the European Court on Human Rights is one of the controversial problems. The author analyzes such terms as source of law, source of criminal procedure law. On the basis of analysis of different views of the specialists given in the references author’s definition to the source of criminal procedure law is given. To define the nature of judgments criteria of rating them as a source of law are developed. The author gives the conclusion that the judgments of the European Court on Human Rights have basic features of the source of criminal procedure law.