The Charter of Criminal Trial of 1864 – Radical Transition From Formal to Objective (Material) Truth, and the Current Problems of Truth in the Modern Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article is devoted to the Charter of Criminal Trial of 1864 which rejected the system of formal proofs and the formal legal truth. The basis of the Charter was then presented by the objective (material) truth. The charter proves that when the objective truth is rejected, the formalization of criminal procedure takes place, and the modern competitive Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation where the competitiveness is self-sufficient and excludes the objective truth, confirms this regularity. So, the confession of guilt by the accused as a proof obtains in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation the special priority, as it is the obligatory formal condition for the special (reduced) order of judicial proceedings. And the tendency to further formalization of the process in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation is still preserved. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation suggested to substitute the formal and legal truth with the objective truth.