Tendencies of the Supreme Court practice development in criminal cases: procedural aspect

The article provides an overview of the conclusions on the application of the CPC of Ukraine provisions formed by the Supreme Court (the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, the Joint Chamber of the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, and the Criminal Cassation Court within the Supreme Court) during the period of its operation. It is stated that the legal positions of the court of cassation may radically change the established approaches to certain aspects of criminal procedure, in particular, in terms of adversarial proceedings. The author outlines the trends of the Supreme Court practice development in criminal cases and notes that in many respects the paradigm of criminal procedure is changing: distinguishing between material and non-material violations of the requirements of the criminal procedure law, the need to study the impact of specific violations on the rights and freedoms of a suspect, an accused person, the overall fairness of a trial, etc. This helps to protect victims, society and the State from criminal offenses, and to bring perpetrators of criminal offenses to justice, which is especially important under martial law. At the same time, attention is drawn to the risks associated with this that may arise in the long term: 1) gradual expansion of the range of “minor” violations of the criminal procedure law, given the lack of clear standardized criteria, may create uncertainty in law enforcement; 2) a decrease in the professional level of investigators, detectives and prosecutors who, over time increasingly rely on the absence of negative consequences associated with procedural violations; 3) the threat of excessive narrowing of the rights, guarantees and procedural opportunities of the defense. The author emphasizes the need to establish a balance between ensuring the efficiency of criminal proceedings and preserving the rights of suspects and accused persons. Key words: criminal cases, the Criminal Cassation Court, the Supreme Court, practice, legal positions, conclusions regarding the application of legal norms, criminal procedure.