Specialist in criminal proceedings: comparative legal analysis

The article presents a comparative legal analysis of the criminal procedure legislation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan, regulating the concept of «special knowledge», the concept of a specialist and the forms of a specialist’s participation in criminal proceedings. This analysis allows the authors to identify both the shortcomings of the legislative structure of some norms related to the participation of a specialist in criminal proceedings, requiring improvement and elaboration at the legislative level of both countries, and the most correctly formulated legal norms regulating the use of specialist expertise in the criminal procedure of two countries. Based on the comparative analysis the authors of the article come to the conclusion about the necessity of expanding the powers of a specialist in investigative proceedings, as well as about the need for a more detailed legislative regulation of a specialist opinion as evidence in the Russian criminal procedure law. Some vectors of possible improvement of the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan regulating the procedure for the participation of a specialist in criminal proceedings are formulated as well.