Face-to-face interrogation: non-transparent perspectives, ineffective tactics and doubtful advantage

The article views the main problems of face-to-face interrogation as a means of proving, disputes its necessity in its current form from the point of view of present topical practice of pretrial proceedings on a criminal case and requirements of international standards, brings up the problem of red tape reduction of criminal justice. The author uses a comparative and historical method in the research of present legal tradition, pays attention to international legal standards of providing the accused with the right to interrogate the person who witnesses against him/her, in the context of statements of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights, and comes to the conclusion that the vector of significance of face-to-face interrogation has been shifted from overcoming major contradictions in testimonies of previously interrogated people to provision of requirements of international legal norms and present practice of the European Court of Human Rights in regard to Russia. The article pays special attention to the factual side of legal relations that appear in the course of face-to-face interrogation.