PROCEDURAL STATUS OF A DOCTOR IN EXAMINATIONS DURING THE PERIOD OF THE RSFSR CRIMINAL PROCEDURE CODE OF 1923

In the article, the object of study was the normative rules of the 1923 Code of Criminal Procedure and the contemporaneous doctrinal positions during the period of that legal act’s validity. As theoretical sources, works produced in the first half of the 20th century were primarily selected. The scientific task addressed in studying this object area was the author’s aim to identify the characteristics of the procedural status (procedural position) of a physician in medical examinations during preliminary investigations. The main methods used for the set of our studies on this topic were a chronodiscrete monographic approach, supplemented by a formal-legal method, which were also employed in the present article. As a result, the conclusion was formulated that the procedural status of a doctor in the examination under the 1923 Code of Criminal Procedure was unclear. Their procedural position depended on the investigator’s decisions. The legislator did not grant the doctor any subjective rights in the examination. The doctor could not take independent actions, which indicated the absence of procedural capacity and legal competence. Soviet law assumed the involvement of a forensic medical expert ex officio in the examination. An ordinary doctor had an absolutely undefined procedural status, which was accordingly reflected in the doctrine of criminal procedure of that period.