Stanislav V. Romanov

The article deals with the definition of the judiciary and its authority as one of its descriptions as they are presented in procedural science. Attention is paid to the constitutional basis of the independence of judiciary. It is shown that authority of the judiciary is one of its independence guarantees. The difference between internal and external independence of judiciary as it has been treated in pre-revolutionary science is examined, as well as a definition of the authority of the judiciary as a sufficiency of its powers that make it possible to judiciary to control all the criminal procedure, the definition of the subsidiary bodies of judiciary and their role in provision of the authority of judiciary under the Judicial Reform of 1864. A conclusion is drawn that there are two aspects of the authority of the judiciary: judicial and procedural. Authority of the judiciary is also compared with the principle of equality of everyone under the law and in trial. The evolution of the definition of the authority of the judiciary in soviet science, when the separation of powers has been rejected and subsidiary bodies of judiciary has been separated from it, and in modern procedural science is exposed. Justice as a key power of the judiciary is compared with its other powers including those administered not by courts.

The article deals with the approaches to the definition and realization of authority of judiciary in Russian pre-revolutionary criminal procedural science. After the brief characteristic of the definition of authority of judiciary its implementation in judicial organization and criminal procedure is studied. It is shown that the authority of judiciary in judicial organization requires special subsidiary bodies of judiciary, that cooperate court in the accomplishment of its main power of the administration of justice. The problem of the authority of judiciary in the aspect of pre-revolutionary criminal procedure is examined regarding its stages. The attention is focused on the way with the help of which judiciary may control a criminal process from its beginning to an end. Particularly during an inquiry police forces were placed under control of Public prosecutor’s office, and at the same time public prosecutor was considered as a subsidiary body of judiciary. On the following stages of criminal procedure the judiciary represented by judicial investigator and court resolving a dispute played a leading role. A stage of committal proceedings differentiating subject to the crime under examination is separately discussed.