Competitiveness of the prosecution and defense parties: acceptability of the reception of the Italian experience

Abstract

The author provides a systematic analysis of one of the steps proposed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan to reform the judicial system and legal proceedings. In order to strengthen the effect of the principle of adversarial nature of the parties to the prosecution and defense in the main trial, the highest judicial body substantiates the need to formulate the far ambiguous and dubious experience of reforming the criminal process in Italy in 1988. The article describes about the possible introduction of the mechanism of the so-called “double dossier” in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Republic of Kazakhstan when the first “dossier” (materials of the preliminary investigation) is not available to the judge, and the second “dossier” is formed directly at the trial stage by presenting evidence by the parties with the passive role of the court. The article presents three aspects of the author’s arguments (procedural-technical, comparative legal, and social), demonstrating the risks, costs, and consequences of the position of the Supreme Court. The author comes to the conclusion that the fascination with overly radical ideas is fraught with a destabilizing factor in society, which goes directly against the Message of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated September 1, 2022, aimed at creating a fair society in Kazakhstan and considering high-quality justice as an essential element of
strengthening public peace.