Participation of the victim's representative - a natural person in the investigation of crimes committed in the sphere of agro-industrial crimes: theoretical and legal issues

Introduction. As a result of crimes in the field of agro-industrial complex there are situations in which damage is caused not only to legal persons, but also to citizens - individuals who are not subjects of agricultural activities or related to them, but not associated with the performance of these professional duties at the time of committing a crime against them. In this regard, the study of legal and organisational problems of involvement in pre-trial proceedings of the victim's representative - a natural person in conditions of complex legal relations, flowing from civil law (economic) disputes into the sphere of criminal jurisdiction, seems relevant. Materials and Methods: are conditioned by the range of scientific and applied tasks aimed at improving the criminal procedure functions exercised by representatives of the aggrieved party. In the course of the study general scientific methods were applied: comparative legal, descriptive, analysis and synthesis, classification, etc. In the course of the study, judicial and investigative practice (materials of criminal cases in which court verdicts have entered into legal force, as well as the results of interviews with investigators) was studied. The Results of the Study allowed to determine the key functions of the victim's representative and the forms of his participation in the pre-trial proceedings for crimes committed in the agro-industrial complex, including in terms of representation of procedural interests of multiple victims - individuals. In addition, proposals for certain additions to the current version of the criminal procedural legislation have been formulated. Findings and Conclusions: the characteristic feature of the participation of the victim's representative - an individual unlike other forms of representation in criminal proceedings, is that the functions performed by him are similar in nature to the functions of an advocate, and most often it is suggested the joint participation in the proceedings of the victim and his representative. Another feature is related to the potential opportunity of representing the interests of many victims. Consideration of these features predetermined the introduction of proposals to the supplement of Article 45 of the Criminal Procedure Code with paragraph 1.1.