Is there a need for a special provision establishing criminal liability of a defense lawyer?

Introduction: the paper raises the issues related to the legal assessment of the defense lawyers’ behavior, preventing the accused (suspect) to exercise the right to defense arising in connection with some legislative initiatives of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The purpose of this study is to identify the presence (absence) of the need to enshrine in the law the special criminal law means of responding to this kind of behavior and administer them. Methods: the methods of comparative legal analysis of the normative material and other methods which are traditional for the theory of criminal law are used in the study. Results: the article analyzes the points of view of the representatives of the legal profession who oppose the introduction of criminal liability for lawyers who intentionally cause harm to their clients or principals in the course of their professional activities, and substantiates the insolvency of the arguments corresponding to this point of view. The examples of enshrining this kind of responsibility for such acts in the foreign legislation are found. The phenomenon of the dysfunction of protection, whose facts are found in the criminal proceedings, is characterized as a socially dangerous one. The potential for responding to such facts through the existing legal means is studied. Scope: it can be used in the legislative practice, law enforcement, and scientific work. The author has formulated the conclusions about the impossibility of solving the problem of combating the socially dangerous forms of violation of the rights of the accused (suspect) to defense without the establishment of criminal liability for obstructing the exercise of this right and the necessity of designing for this purpose a special provision allowing to impose such a responsibility not only on persons conducting the proceedings in a criminal case, but also on the defense lawyer.