The essence, value and legal basis of judicial independence in criminal proceedings

The study discusses the procedural independence of the judiciary in criminal proceedings. The author analyzes the Russian and international laws and regulations defining the autonomy and independence of the judiciary in criminal procedure. The research concludes that the judicial independence enshrined in Article 8.1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation is meant to serve as not an additional but a real guarantee of the procedural independence of judges. In addition, legislative measures should be primarily preventive in order to avoid any impact on a judge conducting the criminal proceedings. Transparency of any appeal to a judge and the possibility of drawing the attention of parties involved in criminal proceedings to these appeals allows one to minimize such cases. Besides, it is unacceptable to confuse procedural autonomy with procedural independence. The procedural autonomy of parties to criminal proceedings has many constraints while the procedural independence of a judge is restricted only by law as well as the moral and ethical standards.