Principles Of Criminal Procedure Policy Of Bulgaria

Abstract

This article analyzes the principles of criminal procedure policy of Bulgaria.

The specificity of the criminal procedure policy of Bulgaria is due to the fact that at the beginning of its new reform the main approaches and principles were enshrined in the Constitution (1991). But after accession to the European Union the main approaches and principles, almost immediately, underwent significant changes in the Penal Procedure Code of the Republic of Bulgaria (2005) and acquired its modern form and content after the update of the Basic Law (2015).

Taking into account the source of criminal procedure policy, which reflects the principles of this policy, we can distinguish the constitutional and sectoral principles of criminal procedure policy in Bulgaria. To a large extent, they detail and mutually complement each other.

The constitutional principles of the criminal procedure policy of Bulgaria include: 1) personal freedom and inviolability of the person; 2) abidance of the term of pre-trial proceedings;3) freedom from self-disclosure; 4) inadmissibility of excessive restriction of rights and freedoms for the implementation of justice; 5) inviolability of housing; 6) secrecy of correspondence; 7) administration of justice on behalf of the people; 8) judicial control; 9) equality and ensuring the adversarial conditions of the parties; 10) establishing the truth as the purpose of criminal proceedings;11) publicity of court proceedings; 12) motivation of court decisions; 13) the right of natural persons and legal entities to protection at all stages of the process; 14) participation in the proceedings of jurors; 15) implementation by the prosecutor’s office of publicity in the context of criminal prosecution, public prosecution, execution of criminal law measures; 16) unity of the investigative and judicial system; 17) guarantees of independence and inviolability of investigators, prosecutors and judges.

The sectoral principles of the criminal procedure policy of Bulgaria include: 1) realization of judicial proceedings in criminal cases only by courts; 2) the central place of judicial proceedings in the system of criminal proceedings; 3) participation of jurors as part of the court; 4) the procedure for appointing subjects of power in criminal proceedings has been determined; 5) independence of bodies that perform the functions of criminal proceedings; 6) equality of citizens in criminal proceedings; 7) adversarial proceedings and equality of procedural rights of the parties; 8) disclosure of the objective truth as the purpose of the criminal process and as the duty of its subjects, who are endowed with power; 9) making decisions based on inner conviction; 10) right to protection; 11) presumption of innocence; 12) inviolability of the person; 13) immediacy; 14) orality of the criminal proceedings; 15) publicity of court hearings; 16) language of criminal proceedings; 17) consideration and resolution of cases within a reasonable time.

The principles of Bulgaria’s criminal procedure policy have defined its democratic, humanistic, and pan-European principles base, and which also consolidate the priority of human rights.