Lyoshenko O. Exercise of the right to a fair trial in the criminal proceedings of Ukraine

Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the specialty 081 - "Law". - National University "Odesa Law Academy", Odesa, 2021. The thesis is a comprehensive study on the exercise f the right to a fair trial in the criminal proceedings of Ukraine. It has been studied the current state of scientific development of the raised problems, performed on the basis of the analysis of scientific researches devoted to various aspects of exercise of the right to a fair trial (in chronological order depending on one or another branch of law). The review of the published results of the scientific researches has demonstrated that as of nowadays the legal doctrine lays the fundamental theoretical foundations for the conceptual apparatus, definition, structural elements of the right to a fair trial, its exercise during the trial and so on. However, despite the considerable amount of researches on this issue, a comprehensive study of exercise of the right to a fair trial in criminal proceedings has not been fulfilled, what increases the relevance of the raised issues. Moreover, a number of issues related to the exercise of this right in practice are controversial, non-investigated, and some are not resolved at all. It is determined that based on the fundamental and multidimensional nature of the right to a fair trial, the monotonous understanding of the right is not possible without a comprehensive understanding of the three interrelated elements of legal dispositions – "law", "justice" and "trial". To this end, the analysis of the scientific positions and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter - the ECHR) concerning interpretation of the above-mentioned concepts has been performed with a critical understanding. It is well-established that in the legal doctrine the emphasis on interpretation of the right to a fair trial is conditioned by several generally connected factors. Firstly, this conceptualisation emerged after Ukraine had ratified the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950 (hereinafter - the Convention). Secondly, the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law "On Judicial System and Status of Judges" guarantee everyone the right to a fair trial. There are two interrelated structural elements of the right to a fair trial: 1) institutional and functional, which includes: access to justice; independence and impartiality of the court; publicity and openness of court proceedings; 2) procedural, which includes: reasonable time; adversarial proceedings of the parties in the criminal proceedings; appealing against procedural decisions, actions or omissions.