Experience of European Countries in Developing Institutions of Legal Aid and Defense in Criminal Proceedings

The Article Purpose is to clarify peculiari-ties of shaping the European Countries’ expe-rience in developing such criminal procedure institutions as defense and provision of legal aid within criminal proceedings. The author applies general scientific methods (analysis and synthesis, generalization, logical and struc tu-ral, etc.), methods of comparative legal research and system analysis. It has been established that in most European countries the system of criminal procedure legislation is more gener-ally accepted, in contrast to the criminal pro-cedure legislation of Ukraine. Legal profession as a non-governmental institution in France, Germany, Poland, Estonia, etc. also functions in compliance with gene rally accepted tradi-tions that arose as early as the17th-18thcentu-ries. However, such situation does not guaran-tee conformity of human rights activities with established international standards in the field of personal protection from criminal prosecu-tion. It has been observed that activities related to protecting a person in the criminal justice field do not differ fundamentally in different countries. What is more, requirements for de-fender counsels provided by the current legis-lation of Ukraine are, in certain aspects, more stringent than, for example, in France and Germany. At present it is important to identify typical mistakes that occur in the activities of law enforcement agencies and defense counsel at the pre-trial investigation stage and signifi-cantly impact the violation of international principles regarding protection from criminal prose cution.