Certain problems in understanding, investigating and litigation
of criminal proceedings on separatism and terrorism
Authors: Basysta Iryna 
Published: October 2020

Objective. The publication is the author's attempt to present to the scholarly community the objective problems of the researchers’ and legal practitioners’ understanding of such closely related phenomena as separatism and terrorism, to cover some particular problems of pre-trial investigation (which emerge due to impossibility of conducting urgent investigative actions right on the crime site, to interrogate the military personnel witnesses according to the general rules, to conduct covert investigation procedures in compliance with the current requirements, to commission and conduct the necessary expert investigations or to officially add the evidentiary items to the case, etc.) and of litigation (being caused by absence of proper regulatory mechanism for recovering the lost materials) for the criminal proceedings of the category mentioned above. It also strives to develop proposals to help reduce the number and urgency of the outlined problems. Methodology. Analysis and synthesis of the scholarly work of several researchers, study of the state of the regulatory support, outlining the author’s own conclusions. The structural and systemic methods, analysis and synthesis, functional and other methods were used in the course of this study. Results. This article introduces arguments that provide grounds for the following conclusions:
- the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine needs to be amended with a separate procedure for taking the procedural actions (as it is often impossible to conduct urgent investigative actions right on the crime site, to interrogate the military personnel witnesses according to the general rules, to conduct covert investigation procedures in compliance with the current requirements, to commission and conduct the necessary expert investigations or to officially add the evidentiary items to the case, etc.), not just stipulating obtaining consent for conducting them, as it is now set out in Article 615 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine;
- the procedure for restoring the lost materials of criminal proceedings of the specified category should differ from the current general one, currently regulated in the Code of Criminal Procedure of Ukraine (this includes both criminal proceedings that are still at the stage of the pretrial investigation with no procedural judgment yet and that have already received the judgment of the courts of the first instance, courts of appeal, courts of cassation, or the European Court of Human Rights);
- the guidelines should be developed to help mitigate and alleviate the psychological component when evaluating evidence in the criminal proceedings of the specified category;
- another urgent issue is resolving the problem of investigative units being overloaded.
Academic novelty. Terrorism and separatism are now manifesting in many countries, and, unfortunately, Ukraine is one of them. Based on the available scholarly opinions, practice, and on my expertise, I attempt to outline the urgent issues and to articulate recommendation that can be useful in the regulatory and practical activities on investigation and litigation of this category of criminal proceedings. Practical importance. The study results can be used in the regulatory and law-enforcement activity in the course of investigation of criminal offences connected to separatism and terrorism.