Acta Universitatis Danubius. Juridica, Vol 15, No 1 (2019)

Abstract

                                           Abstract

        When legal regulation of the criminal proceedings takes place, and also when applied in practice by the procedural authorities, there are two requirements or tendencies before the lawmakers and prosecuting authorities which are very important for the society and the individual: the requirement for the efficiency of criminal proceedings, and the request for the protection of human rights. The first tendency is to regulate the criminal proceedings through the powers given to the state bodies that act in criminal proceedings, in such a way that no perpetrator of criminal offenses is left unpunished. Whereas, the other tendency is intended to respect the human rights because, as known, according to the principle of presumption of innocence, the person is considered innocent until it is not found contrary by a court decision.

       In this context, it should be emphasized that the biggest burden falls on the person directing the criminal proceedings at the main trial. In order to accomplish this goal, the Criminal Procedure Code defines certain rights and obligations of the presiding judge which he/she is to put into effect at the criminal proceedings during the main trial. It is well known that the number of the presiding judge’s powers in criminal proceedings is enormous, and that it is impossible to address all of them in this scientific paper. For this reason, we have decided to focus only on the role of the presiding judge at the main trial in the sense of addressing some of the rights and duties we consider to be found more often in practice, respectively in criminal proceedings at the main trial in Kosovo.

In addressing this issue in this scientific paper, the following methods have been used:

- historical, legal, and comparative methods