Reasonable or objective term in criminal proceedings?

The course for the transformation of criminal proceedings held in Russia already bears certain fruit and this is stipulated by the democratic transformations taking place in the country. The prerequisite of the research of a reasonable term of criminal proceedings was the fact that the urgency of the criminal trial is of interest not only for scientists and law-makers but also for the accused, defendants, and victims, whose rights are breached in long-term criminal proceedings. The state shall guarantee the compensation of harm for the delay of terms of criminal proceedings not only to the accused and suspected but also to the victims. For this, it is necessary to use certain criteria that explain what terms should be considered reasonable. When writing the article, the authors used the methods of analysis, synthesis, logical and system approaches. As the study of the problem was performed by the authors from the point of view of the two aspects of its understanding – from the scientific point of view and administration of law, eventually the chosen methods allowed reaching the set objective of the research – to reveal the peculiarities of a reasonable term of criminal proceedings and also to develop suggestions for the improvement of legislation in the field under consideration. The authors believe that the preliminary investigation and the trial should determine the acceptable or objective term of criminal proceedings to deliver a fast, legal, and relevant judgment upholding by this the rights of all participants in the process. Basing upon the issue declared, the authors analyze the concept of a reasonable term in criminal proceedings, how it is implemented in practice, and propose to legislate the concept of the reasonable term in Article 5 of the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure.