Influence of international legal standards on formation of preliminary stadium of criminal proceedings

A thorough re-organization of the preliminary stage of criminal proceedings is announced as one of the most important changes in the future reform of Serbian system of criminal procedure. On this point, the essential novelty would consist of abolition of the investigating judges, and giving more investigative powers to the public prosecutors. This paper deals with international standards and requirements, directly or indirectly related to preliminary criminal proceedings. The author pays special attention to standards and requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the Acquis Communautaire, particularly when it comes to legal status of the victim and the accused in the pre-trial and investigation stages. The author juxtaposes two models of criminal justice systems - the liberal model and the human rights model.