The court decisions subject to appeal hearing

The article describes the types of the court decisions of the first-instance court that could be appealed to the superior court. The final court decisions of two types are analyzed: sentences and other final court decisions. The two types of the first-instance courts’ intermediate decisions are studied: those subject to the independent (direct) appeal and the ones that are appealed together with the final court decree. The first-instance court decision made during the pre-trial procedure, during the trial procedure and during the execution of the sentence, can be directly forwarded to the court of appeal. The criteria for the distinction between them are defined. The Russian Federation Constitutional Court, Russian Federation Supreme Court, other general jurisdiction courts’ practice is analyzed for the topic in question. A conclusion is made that in accordance with the constitutional guarantee for the judicial defense for everybody (Article 46 of the RF Constitution), one of the essential elements of such a right is the opportunity for the concerned parties to appeal the court decisions, as proposed by the current criminal procedural legislation, and to strive for the court mistakes correction in the corresponding procedure of checking the legitimacy, reasonableness and fairness of the decisions of the court below by the superior court.