Social and Legal Studios

Abstract

Introduction. In 2012, the legal institution of agreements and mediation officially appeared in Ukrainian law. It was an important step towards the implementation of international standards in the practice of criminal proceedings. However, “reform-in-law” is significantly different from “reform-in-action”. Therefore, the idea has arisen to formulate an assessment of the functioning of the “victim-mediator-suspect” system in Ukraine over the past nine years. Purpose. The purpose of the article is a systematic description of the results of an analytical study of the mediation practice in the procedures of agreement between the victim and the suspect in criminal proceedings of Ukraine. Methods. The study is based on a systematic and praxeological approach, as well as logical and other tools of cognitive practice (description, observation, survey, analysis, generalization, etc.). Results. The conducted research has shown that mediation is important act for the criminal procedure humanization because of the restorative justice paradigm. Unfortunately, the analysis confirmed the fears for the effectiveness of current legislation in this area; doubts about the availability of mediation for the conflict parties; lack of a common position and development strategy of the mediation institution in criminal proceedings. Conclusion. The main goal of mediation is to create opportunities for the parties to talk about their needs and find the best way out of the conflict. However, in Ukraine, mediation in criminal proceedings is complicated by the following challenges: defects in legal regulation; problems of mediation subjects; lack of infrastructure; lack of official statistics; information vacuum. The main groups of stakeholders, who are involved in the legal mediation process, are associations of professional mediators; law enforcement and judicial staff; society and the state. The study showed that the expectations of these groups are different

Keywords: restorative justice, mediation, parties to the conflict, agreement, criminal proceedings

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