Kiper O. The procedural independence of an investigator as a guarantee of comprehensive, full, and impartial investigation in criminal proceedings.

The thesis is the first special complex research on the institute of the procedural independence of an investigator in the domestic science based on provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine 2012 and law-enforcement practice. The investigator as a subject of criminal proceedings, its procedural status in the modern criminal proceedings of Ukraine and functional orientation of its procedural activity are examined in the thesis. The essence and importance of investigator’s procedural independence in criminal proceedings are investigated, its matter and limits are determined, as well as the role of investigator’s procedural independence in a comprehensive, full, and impartial investigation of a criminal proceeding. The current issues concerning realization are analyzed and an outlook of improving the main elements of investigator’s procedural independence in criminal proceedings are ascertained: investigator’s inner conviction as a basis for his procedural independence; investigator’s procedural powers as main display of his procedural independence; mechanisms of investigator’s interaction with a prosecutor, an investigation judge, head of the pre-trial investigation agency, and operational units. Theoretically justified proposals and changes to the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine on strengthening investigator’s procedural independence in criminal proceedings are formulated.