Civil society is a large collection of people who are united by one culture, customs and state framework. At the same time, society has always been the basis of the political system. After all, the foundation of each country is laid directly by people. It is worth noting the fact that within a particular state, society must be regulated. This principle was derived a long time ago. The main problem in this case is the bulkiness of society. Its structure is a complex mechanism. Without the presence of constant control, it simply can fail. Throughout their history, people have tried to find the most powerful and effective regulator of social relations. In the search process, religion and violence were tried, but these categories showed their inefficiency. Everything has changed with the advent of law. People realized that there is nothing better than a combination of legalized legal norms. Moreover, the main regulator of public relations - law - is a rather multifaceted category. Therefore, to facilitate its direct application, a certain kind of presumption was formed. One of these is the presumption of innocence, which is widely used in domestic jurisprudence.
The meaning of the term
Presumption is a category that originally arose in a philosophical, rather than legal, field. That is, in order to understand its features, it is necessary to understand the starting points of the presented phenomenon. Thus, presumption is a kind of assumption, which in all cases without exception is considered true until the contrary is proved. In other words, a fact has unchanged content until it is officially changed on the basis of irrefutable facts.
Presumption of innocence
The mentioned category has found its application in domestic jurisprudence and the legislation of the Russian Federation. But we will analyze everything in order. The presumption of innocence is the undeniable fact of the absence of guilt of a particular person. In this case, a person should not be subjected to any restrictions until the moment of proving his guilt in committing a crime. Presumption is a fundamental principle of the criminal process. Moreover, there is a whole regulatory framework based on this principle.
Normative regulation
Any legal presumption has a specific legal status. That is, such categories are fixed in certain regulatory acts. In this case, the presumption of innocence has as many as two levels of regulatory regulation, given the basic documents securing it.
- As previously stated, the presumption of innocence is most clearly manifested in criminal law. It is enshrined in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, namely, Article 14. Based on the provisions of the presented norm, the presumption is mandatory for all law enforcement and judicial authorities.
- Article 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation also contains the principle mentioned earlier. This norm of the basic law, in fact, is the basis for the application of a similar legal structure in criminal law.
It is worth noting that in the framework of this article we will consider precisely the provision of the basic law on the presumption of innocence, since it is wider.
Article 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation
So, the norm of the basic law of the Russian Federation tells of such a legal structure as the presumption of innocence. Moreover, Art. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation reveals not only the concept, but also a number of other aspects of the mentioned legal phenomenon. The article consists of three parts. Each of them presents quite interesting aspects of the presumption, for example:
- Part 1, Art. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation speaks of the innocence of any person until his guilt is proved in the manner established by the legislation of Russia.
- Part 2 refers to the impossibility of imposing on the accused an obligation to prove his innocence.
- In h. 3 Article. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states that fatal, obvious doubts about the fault of the accused will be interpreted in his favor.
As we see, the presented provisions of the constitutional norm indicate the exclusive role of the presumption of innocence in modern legislation and the legal field as a whole. The fact that the category is enshrined in the basic law makes it a fundamental factor in the entire legal system of our state. In order to understand in more detail all aspects of the category, it is necessary to analyze each part of the legal norm.
Innocence of the face and the process of its establishment
If you analyze Art. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation with comments, then many of its aspects become clear. For example, part one says that the guilt of a person must be proved in the manner prescribed by law. Two important aspects emerge from this statement.
- Firstly, the recognition of a person guilty of something should be done objectively.
- Secondly, the collection of evidence of guilt occurs within the framework of established legal procedures.
In the first case, we are talking about the activities of the investigation, inquiry, prosecutor's office and, of course, the court. After all, it is these departments that are able to organize and implement the objective process of proving a person’s guilt. As for the second aspect, it is of extreme importance, again, for representatives of security forces. It should be noted that proof of guilt occurs within the framework of a certain procedure, violation of which will entail the loss of all collected evidence. At the same time, there is another rather important point. The process of proof does not mean anything without a guilty verdict.
Inability to charge
Part 2 of Art. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the comments on which are presented in the article, prohibits forcing a person to independently prove the fact of his innocence. In other words, if a person puts forward any alibi, then the relevant bodies of the pre-trial investigation are required to verify it on their own. The person in this case is not obliged to provide explanations, documents and other evidence to relieve himself of suspicion.
This provision affects many procedural relationships. For example, a suspect or accused may refuse to testify, answer questions, or, conversely, give evidence that he considers necessary in this situation. In other words, a person is free to choose his actions, since no one can force him to admit to something. Thus, the evidence collected should show the guilt of a particular person in the commission of an act to the fullest extent possible. Otherwise, the person will continue to be considered innocent.
Imputation of doubt
The provisions of Art. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation also describe the rules for the interpretation of fatal doubts about the guilt of a person. Part 3 states that doubts about a person’s involvement in an offense should be interpreted in favor of his innocence. However, there is a certain specificity. The bottom line is that not all facts can be the indicated doubts. Individual elements of the guilt of a person should be checked as objectively and thoroughly as possible. In this case, the inevitability of doubts is manifested in the fact that they cannot be refuted or blocked by other facts. In other words, such circumstances are reliable and irrefutable.
The importance of the category for domestic law
There are many interesting categories in the national legal system, one of which is the presumption of innocence. The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 49) provides an exhaustive description of this phenomenon. But in this case, a logical question arises: what role does the presumption of innocence play in domestic law? First of all, it should be noted that this institution is completely democratic.
That is, its existence emphasizes the essence of the state itself. On the other hand, the presumption of innocence determines some factual aspects of the activities of certain bodies. It directly affects the procedural factors of crime investigation. In addition, the existence of the presumption suggests that Russia has departed from the totalitarian principles of building a political regime in the state.
Presumption of innocence in other industries
As we understand it, Art. 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is not the only source of the legal structure mentioned in the article. This legal phenomenon is found in several branches of modern law, namely:
The presence of the presumption of innocence in the constitution allows the construction to be applied in many legal relations. After all, the basic law is the basis of the legal system of the state.
We tried to find out what the presumption of innocence represents. The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 49) describes this specific legal point. In conclusion, it should be noted that its existence has changed almost the entire legal system of our state for the better.