The role of doctrine in criminal procedure regulation

Introduction. The The author researches the role of legal doctrine in the regulation of relations in the sphere of criminal proceedings.It is noted that the differences in the positions of scientists regarding the recognition of legal doctrine as a source of Russian law are derived from the differentiation of views on the concepts of “doctrine” and “source of law”. There are two types of legal doctrine: doctrine as a set of provisions of legal science (scientific legal doctrine) and doctrine as official documents of doctrinal nature (official doctrine). The term “source of law” is used in two meanings - as a law-forming factor, the beginning, the origin of law (material source of law) and as a form of law, a way of establishing legal norms (formal-legal source of law). The possibility of relating the designated types of legal doctrine to substantive and formal-legal sources of criminal procedural law is analysed. Methods. Methods of analysis, synthesis, formal-legal, logical, sociological and other methods of scientific cognition formed the methodological basis of the research. Results. The author has concluded that legal doctrine is a material source and the most important tool of cognition of criminal procedural law. The author argues that legal doctrine cannot be recognised as a formal-legal source of criminal procedural law.