Criminal procedure as a form of social conflict resolution

The purpose of the research is an attempt to prove the independence of criminal procedure law in relation to criminal law. However, in the course of research, the authors were confronted with the fact that the traditional approach based on legal positivism does not allow one to distinguish other criminal procedural law, except for criminal law. However, a similar understanding of law and process does not allow to reveal their ability to resolve conflicts. In this regard, in the study, the authors turned to the methodology developed by modern hermeneutics, using the communicative theory of law as the main method for studying criminal procedure law, where law acts as a means of interaction between people, which sets the boundaries for such interaction, which made it possible to look at the criminal process as a way communications. In the process of such communication, conflicts arising in society that are basically criminal in nature are resolved. In the field of criminal proceedings, this allowed to say, if the case concerns a criminal law conflict, then we should not talk about the emergence of criminal law relations. Based on that, the authors conclude that the criminal procedure law is independent. This follows, first of all, from the fact that the process does not boil down to the application of criminal law, but performs the function of resolving conflicts and can well do without applying a specific norm of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, for example, in case of reconciliation of the parties (Article 25 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation) or in connection with compensation for damage (Article 28.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). The authors conclude that criminal law is the legal means of institutionalizing possible social conflicts, and the criminal process is a form of resolution. Thus, the fact of committing a crime is losing its significance; instead, the conflict that has come to the fore is highlighted. Moreover, the process serves only as a form of conflict resolution, which translates it into a legal channel. Without criminal law, procedural procedures lose all meaning, which, however, does not put the process in a subordinate position with respect to law. Based on the functional load of law as a form of resolving social conflicts, the authors conclude that the process is functionally designed to resolve them. At the same time, the application of the criminal law norm as a result of procedural activity loses all meaning. Instead, the fact of resolving the conflict, which may occur, for example, in reconciliation of the parties, is of importance. Thus, the criminal procedure form is functionally designed to resolve criminal law conflicts arising in society.