ON THE INADMISSIBILITY OF REPEATED PARTICIPATION OF A JUDGE IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

The article is devoted to limitations of repeated participation of a judge in proceedings, established by law. The authors describe the concept and features of repeated participation and reveal the scope of art. 63 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation by taking into account the legal axiom stating that a judge could not evaluate his own decisions. There are some examples of contradictory court decisions on appealing against repeated participation of a judge in criminal proceedings. The authors critically assess art. 63 of the Criminal Procedural Code, which significantly limits the rule on the inadmissibility of repeated participation of a judge in proceedings. They reveal different positions of the Constitutional Court and the Plenum of the Supreme Court and say that they didn’t correspond to the current legislation. There is also a comparative analysis of general and specific rules restricting the participation of judges in revision of judicial decisions on cassation or supervising complaints. The authors give a list of cases when the law explicitly admits repeated participation of a judge in proceedings, despite the fact that it could prejudges the evaluation of evidence and guilt of a person. Besides that, a special attention is given to the draft law moved by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia on the establishment of district courts of appeal and cassation as an attempt to resolve the current contradictions.