Summary

On 12 February 2003, the Riigikogu passed the Code of Criminal Procedure, which enters into force on 1 July 2004. Without any intention to undermine the important role of this Code in making the criminal procedure in Estonia more effective and bringing it to a new level of quality, the author addresses some of the provisions in the Code governing pre-trial procedure, which in the author’s opinion are deficient linguistically and in terms of the legislative drafting standards. The author highlights several provisions that, if interpreted and implemented in their present form, may give rise to misunderstanding and dispute. These provisions contain incorrect and inconsistently used terms and phrases. In addition, the author also focuses on content problems related to pre-trial procedure. Of these, the author examines in depth problems pertaining to the functions and legal status of an expert and specialist, and whether information obtained from the questioning of an expert may be treated as evidence in a criminal case.