Review

The article is devoted to the study of the axiological aspects of the right to defense in criminal proceedings under international law. To achieve this goal and ensure the scientific objectivity of the research results, the author has chosen a set of modern general scientific and special methods, in particular: dialectical – to study the structure and content of the right to defense in criminal proceedings; systemic-structural – to determine the specific features of the right to defense in the practice of international courts; formal-logical – to analyze current legislation and existing theoretical provisions relating to the essence of the right to defense in criminal proceedings; comparative method – for comparing constitutional, criminal law and criminal procedure provisions and a number of legal provisions of foreign countries, as well as studying law enforcement practice in criminal proceedings, which made it possible to summarize the results obtained.

The right to defense in criminal proceedings has a complex structure and includes the following components: the right to self-defense (personal defense), the right to defense by choice of legal aid, the right to appointed legal aid. The right under study as a whole belongs to the group of absolute civil rights, because according to international standards, a person cannot be deprived of such a right, but some elements of the right to defense can be attributed to the group of socio-economic rights, which is due to the level of development of each particular state and the ability to ensure the implementation of the right, for example, to ensure the right to free legal aid.

The concept of understanding the legal nature of the right to defense by international human rights courts and international criminal courts is generally stable and unified, but the jurisdiction and purpose of each court significantly affects the definition of certain elements of the right under study. The standards of the right to defense established by international human rights bodies are the basis for the functioning of international criminal courts, but this does not preclude international criminal courts from defining additional guarantees of the right to defense. This is due to the jurisdiction and purpose of each individual international criminal court. For example, international criminal courts have high requirements for the qualifications of defense counsel who can represent interests in criminal proceedings.

Keywords: criminal justice, international standards, right to defense, human rights, defense counsel.