“situation of urgency” as an evaluative category in the law and practice of criminal justice

Introduction: the effectiveness of crime investigation is largely determined by the ability of the criminal procedure legislation to clearly regulate the procedure of criminal proceedings. However, the legislator for a number of reasons is forced to resort to the use of such a method of legal technique as the inclusion in the text of the criminal procedure norms the evaluative categories and terms, the uncertainty of which forces the law enforcement officer to interpret their content at his discretion, based on the level of his legal awareness. In a number of cases, this leads to unjustified restrictions on the rights and freedoms of participants in the criminal proceedings. In this regard, the paper aims to analyze the essence of one of such evaluative concepts used in Art.165 of the Code of Criminal Procedure - “situation of urgency”, to study the mistakes made by the law enforcement practice when operating with this concept, and to identify the opportunities to prevent unreasonable restrictions on the rights and freedoms of participants in the process when conducting investigative actions against them. Methods: the methodological framework for the study is the general scientific (dialectical, systemic, structural-functional, logical, etc.) and specific scientific (formal legal, comparative law, etc.) research methods. Results: the author’s points of view stated in the paper is based on the generalization of knowledge accumulated in the theory of the criminal procedure and practical experience of decision-making on the conduct of investigative actions in situations of urgency. Based on the analysis of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the theoretical and legal opinion of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the explanations given in the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court, and the provisions of the departmental normative legal acts, the author determines the essence of the category “situation of emergency” and makes recommendations for improving the law enforcement. Conclusions: the legality and validity of investigative actions requiring the court decision in a situation of urgency implies the existence of factual grounds for the investigative action, as well as the justification for the existence of the situation of emergency in the decision of the body of investigation, as it allows you to limit the subjectivity in the decision to conduct the investigative action in this situation.