TESTIMONY OF THE ACCUSED PERSON AND ITS CHECKING IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

On July 6, 2020, the law “Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law” entered into force, which significantly changed the attitude of the legislator towards the right of the accused to testify. The aim of the study is to examine the testimony of the accused and their examination, paying special attention to the examination of the testimony of the accused in court. The object of the research is the testimony of the accused person and their examination in the criminal proceedings. Tasks of the research: 1) to find out the status of the testimony of the accused from the point of view of proof; 2) to analyze the regulation of the testimony of the accused and the legal consequences after the amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law of 6 July 2020; 3) to summarize the practice of the Supreme Court in 2020-2022; 4) to develop conclusions and proposals for solving the identified problems. Hypothesis of the research: the problem of the accused's testimony became relevant after the contradictory amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law, which entered into force on July 6, 2020, the uniform application of which is not ensured in practice

DURATION OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS: HUMAN RIGHTS AND JURISDICTION ASPECTS

Duration of criminal proceedings is one of the most important issues in the theory and practice of Latvian criminal proceedings. Unlike the limitation period for persons in pre-litigation proceedings, the Criminal Procedure Law does not contain such a time limit for proceedings. This raises the question of the possible improvement of the legal framework, from a jurisdictional point of view and from a human rights point of view. The Article analyzes the standards of length of proceedings, their impact on the rights of the involved persons and legitimate interests’ realization, as well as the impact on jurisdiction. Methods used to create an Article: analytical sociological observation method, induction and literature analysis method. The final conclusion is that in the course of the lengthy proceedings, there are risks to the parties right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time, the role of the prosecutor in preparing the case for trial, as well as the problem of the organisation of work in the courts of first instance. Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law and Law “On Judicial Power” are proposed

CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING QUALITATIVE EXECUTION OF JUDICIAL POWER IN CRIMINAL LITIGATIONS

Representing both judicial and executive powers, institutions and officials take part in criminal litigations. In particular, the courts of the three instances, when executing judicial power, decide on person’s guilt or guiltlessness in relevant criminal cases. In pre-trial proceedings, judicial power is manifested through ensuring control on human rights’ limitation. In its turn, investigating bodies, which represent judicial power, ensure criminal actions’ investigating and submitting. Finally, punitive institutions (like administrative authorities of penal institutions, State probation service, as well as sworn court bailiffs) take part at the stage of executing the criminal punishment in criminal litigation, thus providing with the support implementing judicial power in criminal proceeding. The objective of this article is to identify and research the circumstances affecting qualitative implementation of judicial power in criminal litigation, a special attention is paid to the circumstances, which have negative affect on criminal litigation. The mentioned objective, in the author’s opinion, is extremely significant in theory and in practice

PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF DISABLED PERSONS AS VICTIMS OF CRIME IN CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

The aim of the research is to conduct comparative analysis to the Criminal Procedure Laws of the Republic of Lithuania, of the Republic of Latvia and the Ukraine on the rights of protection of disabled persons who became victims of criminal acts (crimes and misdemeanours). Some group of persons are more attractive target for criminals due to their physical or/and mental weakness. Disability is the one of main factors, that directly has impact on them, when accessing to justice - especially during pre-trial investigation stage of criminal procedure. The authors of the research paper are going to focus on disabled persons’ access to justice particularly during interview.          The above mentioned issue points out the main objectives of the research:To describe disabled persons.To analyse international and national laws on protection of the rights of disabled persons as victims of criminal acts in criminal procedure.To identify the issues related to disabled persons’ access to justice, especially in criminal procedures.To propose suggestions, which could improve protection of the rights of disabled persons in criminal procedures.

INCRIMINATION AND THE MODIFICATION OF INCRIMINATION IN HEARING

The author of the research provides the explanation of the concept of criminal proceedings, its content, explores and analyzes the possibilities of amending the incrimination in court hearing process and its application in practice by studying and analyzing the legal literature, legal regulation and practice materials. Researching the Criminal Proceedings Law paragraphs 461 and 462 application in practice, the author has identified that public prosecutors, amending the incrimination in court hearing process, often indicate only the paragraph, without pointing the way the incrimination was amended, which does not allow to draw a conclusion if the way of incrimination amending has been understood correctly, as well as the incrimination amendment is used to clarify the incrimination and correct misspelling mistakes that have been made.The author of the research makes suggestions for improvement of mentioned regulations, because the incrimination must provide full understanding of its essence, without searching for additional explanations in criminal case materials

ASYLUM LAW REGULATION AND CURRENT EVENTS OF ITS APPLICATION IN LATVIA

The development of the regulatory framework of Latvia’s Asylum and external border is determined by international regulatory framework, the EU's regulatory framework and influence of Latvian bilateral relationship as well as the need to balance the free movement of persons which is essential part of human rights in order to ensure the legislation in relation to Latvian external border regime within international and national legal framework. This is evidenced as a problematic issue in regulatory framework, law practices and border control both in Latvia and other EU countries. It is necessary to explore international, EU and national legal framework within the EU's external borders functioning in Latvia by detecting problems in the EU's Asylum determination in the context of border regime and border control regulatory framework, by exploring legislation, legal concepts, incompleteness of terminology and eventually to develop suggestions for improving laws and regulations. The primary method is Analytical method - the analysis of international, EU, the Schengen Acquis and the national regulatory framework and administrative practice

TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES IN THE CONTEXT OF TRAINING MODERN LAWYERS

The development of modern technologies poses new challenges for training legal professionals. Traditional forms of teaching do not produce the desired secondary effect (for example, the students' interest in acquiring knowledge in a particular course) or the end result (acquiring the competences needed for the modern job market). Consequently, teaching should be more focused on the application of new, non-traditional forms of education while preserving the best traditions of legal training (handwriting rather than e-device, developing communication skills and emotional intelligence). As a result, this article analyses the use of technologies and potential threats they pose to maintaining traditional values specific to the legal profession in the education process. The article, using the method of literature analysis, dialectical research, the deductive and inductive method, analysis and synthesis, and modelling, which ensures the validity of the results obtained, sociological observation method, including  as well as the experience of Rezekne Academy of Technologies and of Pskov State University in the training of new lawyers, summarises information and draws conclusions on how to use technology and its development opportunities in the education process.

LEGAL REGULATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION RESULTS AND EDTECH TOOLS IN THE CONTEXT OF RESTRICTIONS ON THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 IN LATVIA AND RUSSIA

The use of EdTech tools to achieve higher education results in the context of restrictions on the spread of Covid-19 transforms both the process of higher education and reflects the need to make corrections in the formulation of the results of traditional higher education in social and humanitarian areas of training. The article proposes an analysis of the regulation of the results of higher education and the use of EdTech-tools in accordance with the current standards. Generalization of the competence of subjects of educational activity in the formation of individual educational results allows segmenting into traditional and alternative carriers of educational products. A roadmap for achieving compliance of quality criteria of EdTech tools for improving the results of higher education is proposed.

CRITERIA OF THE QUALITY OF CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS AND THEIR IMPROVEMENT

The theoretical issues of criminal proceeding quality and its criteria, which have not been comprehensively discussed in the juridical literature of Latvia, are analyzed in this article. The purpose of the article is to represent the research on the classification of quality criteria. The objectives of the article are to analyze the quality criteria of the criminal proceeding, its types depending on the origin of the source of the criterion, on the resource used in terms of quality assessment, and also depending on the milestone or stage of the criminal proceeding. The applied research methods: the method of analysis of literature, the comparative legal method, and the method of inductio