The right of access to justice for a person under criminal prosecution

Access to justice is a comprehensive inter-branch legal concept that serves as the basis for the development of branch-related tools to enforce it. One should take into account that legal scientists regard access to justice both as a principle and a subjective right of people involved in criminal proceedings. Considering the nature of the right of access to justice that is a basic element of the right to defense, including through criminal proceedings, the author treats access to justice as a free opportunity for participants in criminal procedure to ask for defense at any stage of the criminal process. The study reveals the current criminal procedural forms of the exercise of the right under review by a person under criminal prosecution based on the analysis of modern doctrinal viewpoints and relevant case law.