Hafych I. Organizational and legal bases of prosecutor's participation in resolving the issue of termination of criminal proceedings.

This thesis is devoted to the investigation of the theoretical, legal, organizational and methodological foundations of the prosecutor's participation in the process of closing the criminal cases and also to the wording of the science based suggestions aimed at improving its legal framework and enforcement practice. The legal nature of the prosecutor's activity in issues related to the process of closing a criminal procedure was revealed. It was found that this activity is intermediate between pre-trial and judicial activity in a criminal proceeding which embody such constitutional functions of the prosecutor's office as organization and procedural guidance of the pre-trial investigation, resolving other issues of a criminal proceeding in accordance with the law, supervision over the covert and other investigation actions and prosecution in court on behalf of the state. The expedience of understanding this activity within the framework of such a component of the constitutional function of the prosecutor's office provided by the paragraph 2 of part 1 of Art. 131-1 of the Constitution "resolving other issues of a criminal proceeding in accordance with the law " was justified. At the same time, it was proved that although the activity of closing a criminal procedure is not completely a supervision activity, however, in case of supervision over the investigators decisions it can be considered within the category of "prosecutor's supervision". A foreign experience of prosecutor's activity at the stage of finishing a pre-trial investigation in some countries of Common Law (England, USA) and the Civil (continental) Law system (Germany, France, Switzerland) and former Soviet countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Georgia) was analyzed. In accordance to this experience it was determined that there are two main kinds of the end of a pre-trial investigation such as closing a criminal proceeding or sending a case to trial. Being an authorized person a prosecutor is a key to this activity as one conducts a pre-trial proceeding and thus has rights to take decisions how to finish it – or to forward a case to court or to close a criminal procedure if a consideration of a case in court is impossible. The experience of the most western countries and some former Soviet ones that chose a western pattern of a criminal procedure (Moldova, Georgia) provides an exclusive role of the prosecutor in a process of closing a case. At the same time in countries that still have a Soviet model of a criminal process rights to close a criminal procedure belong also to the investigator and interrogator. The object and subject of the prosecutor's activity in closing the criminal proceedings are characterized. The object of the relevant activity is disclosed through the understanding a closure of a criminal proceeding as a form of the end of the pre-trial investigation. According to the statistics, it was established that the closure of the criminal proceedings is the most spread form of finishing a pre-trial investigation. The reason of this is that a pre-trial investigation starts automatically, so the closure of a criminal proceeding got the role of a "procedural filter" instead of the decision to initiate a criminal case. The preparatory, main and final stages of the prosecutor's activity on the closure of a criminal proceeding are highlighted. A boundary moment of this activity is given as a moment when a criminal proceeding finishes completely that can be considered as the expiration of the period for its renewal (it means a legal deadline to appeal a prosecutor's decision to close a case and to revoke an investigators decree to close a case by prosecutor) or when a court decision about the closure of a case with the exemption from a criminal responsibility entries into the legal force. The article describes such elements of the prosecutor's activity in closing a criminal proceeding, such as comprehensiveness, completeness and objectivity (to act impartially) of the pre-trial investigation, as well as the legality, validity and accuracy of closing a case. All these requirements together must be detected by the prosecutor while checking the procedural decisions of the investigator, interrogator and also in his own decisions that require a closure of a case. A system of goals (tasks) that should be achieved to ensure that a prosecutor will be involved in activity of taking decisions about a closure of a criminal proceeding was formulated. It was substantiated that at the stage of finishing the pre-trial investigation the prosecutor must determine the perspectives of a case in court and the possibility of forming and maintaining a public prosecution.