The Right of Parties in Criminal Proceedings to “Be Heard” in Court Debates

The guarantee of the implementation of the constitutional right to judicial protection in criminal proceedings is provided by a number of procedural rights of participants in criminal proceedings. These include the right of the parties to be “heard” by the court, which is most clearly manifested at the stage of judicial debate, which is interrelated with the principle of competitiveness and equality of the parties. Having no separate consolidation in the criminal procedure legislation, this right often remains without due attention of the courts, which is negatively reflected in legal practice in the form of judicial errors, entailing the cancellation of the sentence.
Focusing on the right of the parties to “be heard” in court debates, clarifying its procedural role and significance should lead to strengthening guarantees of the rights of participants in the process to exercise the right to judicial protection in adversarial proceedings. Based on the analysis of the positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, procedural doctrine, judicial practice and certain aspects of judicial communication, readers are invited to look at the right of the parties to “be heard” in court debates as an important element of the adversarial nature of the parties in court debates.