Conceptual Foundations of Criminal Procedure: in Search for Rationale

Abstract

The Article is dedicated to the understanding of conceptual foundations of criminal procedure. It is realized by referring to theoretical and methodological foundations of philosophical thought. Thus, the intellectual foundation of the Romano-Germanic legal system is rationalist continental philosophy (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz). Meanwhile, the basis of the Anglo-Saxon legal system is the philosophical doctrine of empiricism (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke). The consequence of the indicated difference in theoretical and methodological foundations was a different understanding of truth. If in the continental legal system the objective truth was prevalent, in the case law legal system the truth was reached as a result of adversariality and had a relative nature. Thus, current criminal procedure of post-Soviet countries, which combines features of adversariality and objective truth, requires conceptualization.