On the issue of mandatory participation of a defense attorney in criminal proceedings

The article considers the issues of ensuring the right to defense from the point of view of the completeness of its legal regulation. The features of this action are considered with the substantiation of their distinctive features on the issues of ensuring the participation of a defense attorney. A brief description is given for each ground for the mandatory participation of a defense attorney. It is concluded that the mandatory nature of ensuring the participation of a defense attorney for the implementation of this right should be directly enshrined in the content of the principle provided for in Article 16 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and 48 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Since there is an opinion that the imperativeness of this right does not coincide with the concept of the right to defense as subjective and positive, from the provision of which some participants are given the opportunity to refuse. In this regard, the requirement for the mandatory provision of this right should be enshrined in the status of a norm-principle.