Independence of the court in pre-trial proceedings in criminal cases

The study examines the issues of procedural independence of the court in pre-trial proceedings in criminal cases. The author analyzes the functions, forms of activity, and powers of the court in pre-trial proceedings and identifies the problems in the normative definition of the court independence in criminal proceedings, as well as the problems of guarantees of the principle of independence in pre-trial proceedings. To determine the correctness of the use of the phrase “in the exercise of justice” in the wording in part 1 of article 8.1 of the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure the author considers the relationship between the principle of independence and other principles in terms of the phrases. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that it is necessary to exclude the word “justice” from the wording of part 1 of article 8.1 of the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure and suggests a more universal term “judicial activity” suitable for all stages of criminal proceedings. In addition, the correlation of functions, forms of participation and powers of the court in pre-trial proceedings in criminal cases is studied.