Jurisdiction of courts of first instance in criminal cases in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines

Introduction: this article examines the criminal courts of first instance in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The subject of the analysis is the generic jurisdiction of criminal cases to the courts of first instance of the five indicated countries, their comparative analysis, as well as comparison with the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace in Russia. The result of such comparisons is proposals for improving the existing systems in criminal cases, both in the indicated countries and in Russia. Materials and Methods: four documents were searched from each of the five countries in the region - the Constitution, the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code, and laws or ordinances on the judiciary. It is important to note that some of them did not even come into legal force, which caused difficulties in the assessment. On this basis, the study was carried out by the comparative method of these legislations, as well as comparison with domestic codes. Results: countries in which justices of the peace operate, as well as magistrates' courts, small claims courts and Penghulu courts were especially noted in the work. The principle was taken as the basis, the more instances, the better the results of the activity of the judiciary. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the courts of first instance of these countries was subjected to a comparative analysis with the allocation of law enforcement features, as well as the possibility of using some provisions in changing the jurisdiction of justices of the peace in Russia, and vice versa. Discussion and Conclusions: the authors touch upon certain aspects of the jurisdiction of the courts of first instance of these countries, which are important in the formation of the jurisdiction of these courts. The issues related to the classification of crimes (categorical apparatus) are also gaining importance. In all countries analyzed, there is a different approach to the formation of the categorical apparatus. Of course, Russian legal scholars have different approaches to this important issue. The authors take into account the December 2018 proposal of the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation V.M. Lebedev to introduce Article 15.1 into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provides for a new category of "criminal offenses". 118 corpus delicti with a maximum punishment of up to 1 year in prison were to be transferred to it. In addition, the authors give an important place to simplified (summary) legal proceedings.