Geographical approach to determining access to justice in criminal cases (on the example of district courts of the Tyumen region)

Abdulvaliev Almaz Firzyarovich ORCID: 0000-0002-0390-393X PhD in Law Docent of the chair of criminal law disciplines, Institute of State and Law, University of Tyumen 38 Lenin Street, Tyumen, Tyumen region, 625000, Russia a.abdulvaliev@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The right to access to justice is a key requirement in ensuring the participation of various participants in criminal proceedings in the consideration of criminal cases by the court, as many scientists say ^{[1, pp. 155-163; 2, pp. 340-342; 3, pp. 373-395; 4, pp. 177-192]}. The observance of his rights and legitimate interests in a criminal case depends on how close the court is to the population, how easy it will be for a person to reach the appropriate judicial authority. Therefore, the location of courts of general jurisdiction plays an important role in criminal proceedings. Access to justice has been repeatedly studied by scientists from a criminal procedural point of view ^{[5, pp. 13-28; 6, pp. 212-216]}. There were even suggestions to recognize it as a principle of criminal procedure ^{[7, p. 55; 8, p. 564-593]}. However, few scientists have studied access to justice from a geographical point of view. Moreover, there may be a lot of actual problems hidden here.

In this regard, the aim of the study was to check to what extent the courts of general jurisdiction in certain regions of the Russian Federation located beyond the Urals are accessible to the population from a geographical point of view, and to what extent the courts have well-developed transport accessibility.

The object of the study was the district courts of general jurisdiction of the Tyumen region. At the same time, the study of pedestrian and transport accessibility (by road, rail and air transport) was taken as a basis, determined by the distance in kilometers in a straight line from the location of the court to the nearest infrastructure transport facilities, as well as the distance from the court to the nearest prosecutor's office and investigation bodies due to the fact that these bodies are also directly involved in investigation of the criminal case and its subsequent transfer to the court. This approach also makes it possible to trace the movement of a criminal case not only from a procedural, but also from a geographical point of view. The purpose of the study was not to study the location of magistrates' precincts, the location of district courts in Tyumen and the Tyumen Regional Court, since a separate and additional scientific study is required for their study.

Having studied the conceptual apparatus, it is worth pointing out that transport accessibility is understood as a normative indicator of the time spent on transport links between various points within group settlement systems (A terminological dictionary on construction in 12 languages of the VNIIIS of the USSR Gosstroy). At the same time, it should be clarified that the level of transport accessibility, although it is measured by scientists in hours ^{[9, p. 257]} or by other parameters ^{[10, p. 63-70]}, including economic ^{[11, p. 42-53]}, but for this study it would be more appropriate to determine accessibility in kilometers due to the use of non-mathematical, and a geographical method of investigating the location of judicial authorities using online maps. Moreover, scientists have different approaches to determining pedestrian and transport accessibility ^[12].

In addition, the study attempted to determine how far the court of general jurisdiction is removed from the local district administration of the municipality, since the specified local government body acts to a greater extent as the center of the settlement, and, often, geographically. And from this it is possible to trace where the court is located in the locality – in the center or on the periphery, on the main street or not. Such factors are important, indicating, in particular, the convenience of finding a court for nonresident persons who arrived, for example, to participate in a court hearing.

Before proceeding to the description of the results of the scientific research, it is necessary to clarify that not all municipal districts have district courts. So, in the Tyumen region, in three municipal districts – Aromashevsky, Uporovsky, and Yurginsky – there are no courts of general jurisdiction. These courts existed in the Tyumen Region earlier, but were abolished in March 2010; the corresponding Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 39-FZ of 29.03.2010 "On the abolition of some district Courts of the Tyumen Region" was adopted, and all issues related to the administration of justice were transferred to neighboring district courts – Golyshmanovsky District Court, Zavodoukovsky District Court, Omutinsky district Court of the Tyumen region.

In the explanatory note to this draft Federal law, it was mentioned that the abolition of the above-mentioned courts was caused by the small number of judges (2-3 judges) in judicial districts with a small population. This, in the opinion of the legislator, creates obstacles to the realization of a citizen's right to have his case considered in that court and by the judge to whose jurisdiction it is attributed by law. If it is necessary to consider a criminal case in a district court consisting of three judges, when for one reason or another one or two judges cannot take part in the consideration of the case, it is sent to another court, and the citizen is deprived of the constitutional right "to his own court".

Proceeding from the stated position, it is possible to see a collision of two principles of criminal proceedings: the administration of justice only by the court and ensuring access to justice. Proceeding from the fact that the latter principle has not received legislative consolidation in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, it can be concluded that the priority of the principle of the administration of justice is only by the court, which establishes in Part 3 of Article 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation the requirement to prohibit depriving the defendant of the right to consider a criminal case in that court and by the judge to whose jurisdiction this criminal case is attributed the case.

The absence of district courts in the above-mentioned municipalities of the Tyumen region should not inherently cause a complication in providing access to justice on geographical grounds, since the close proximity to other municipal districts where there are district courts (and the minimum distance between district centers in a straight line is 30-50 kilometers), to a relative extent levels the distance to the judicial authority. Such a short distance to the nearest district court in general should not be a significant obstacle for the population of the Aromashevsky, Uporovsky and Yurginsky municipal districts, especially since there is a relatively stable and year-round transport connection between the district centers. There is also a high probability that in the future, during the administrative-territorial reform, these municipalities of the Tyumen region may be merged. An indirect role in this can also be played by a systematic decrease in the number of people living in these municipalities.

However, it is worth making a reservation here that such consolidation of municipal districts should not go to the detriment of justice. A balanced approach to the enlargement procedure should be organized so that residents of abolished (or annexed) municipal districts do not have to travel a long distance to the district court. Therefore, when carrying out administrative and territorial reforms related to the enlargement of districts, it is necessary to take into account the territorial remoteness and transport accessibility of urban and rural settlements relative to the district center.

In the remaining municipal districts of the Tyumen Region, in small urban and rural settlements that are district centers, courts of general jurisdiction are still preserved and continue to function.

Nevertheless, it is interesting to trace the location of the courts in the district centers, i.e. where are they located – in the center of the settlement, a little further away or on the very outskirts? It is also interesting to find out whether they are located on the central street or not? Since such urban features can also affect access to justice. Moreover, the concentration of various authorities in the center of the settlement plays not only a geographical (urban) role.

Another logical question arises, what is the center of the settlement and any settlement? How to define it? It is logical to assume that the center of the settlement is its geographical center. It doesn't have to be any specific point, it can also be a certain center with a radius of 200-500 meters. As a rule, the social and business center of the settlement is taken as a basis, where many institutions and authorities are located along with the judicial body. After all, district courts are essentially part of the social and business center of many localities.

The conducted research showed that in the Tyumen region, the majority of district courts of general jurisdiction (84.2%) are located directly in the center of the settlement itself and on the main street, with the exception of Tyumen, Sladkovsky and Uvatsky district courts. Moreover, the location of the Tyumen district Court on the outskirts of the city itself near the bypass road, on the contrary, is more preferable and convenient from the point of view of access to justice for residents of the Tyumen district, since there is no need for them to enter the city center, which is difficult for orientation and movement. In the Sladkovsky district of the Tyumen region, the court is located not quite in the geographical center of the settlement, but relatively close to it.

The situation is somewhat different with the Uvatsky District Court. The location of this court on the periphery of the district center is complicated by the fact that most of the authorities (including law enforcement agencies), as well as the exit to the main highway, are located on the opposite bank of the Irtysh River. The connection between the two banks, due to the absence of a road bridge, is carried out in summer by ferry crossing, and in winter by ice crossing.  In the autumn and spring periods (i.e. during the thaw), transport communication between the two halves of the village of Uvat is carried out only by helicopter. Therefore, access to justice in the Uvatsky district is literally difficult and highly dependent on natural seasonal and other climatic conditions.

What is pedestrian accessibility? How is it determined? Pedestrian accessibility is movement through the territory carried out in conditions of standard weather for a given area (within the climatic norm) without the use of vehicles by a person capable of independent movement, the possibility of using the pedestrian accessibility indicator outside public spaces of settlements and (or) off public roads is recommended to be justified separately (The Order of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation from 02/15/2021 No. 71 "On approval of Methodological recommendations for the preparation of standards for urban planning design").

According to the set of principles of integrated development of urban areas ^[13], a pedestrian accessibility zone is an area within which an untrained person can walk to any point in 5-10 minutes with a calm step. The distance covered during this time is assumed to be 210-420 meters.  By other mathematical calculations, when walking at a calm pace, an average distance of 330-660 meters is obtained.  In some local regulatory legal acts, pedestrian accessibility is determined by the pedestrian accessibility index (dimensionless coefficient) as the average value of the values obtained from the calculation of the ratio of the length of the shortest pedestrian route to the length of the limit route to the points of attraction within the 800-meter zone, taking into account the topology of the road network (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 510-r of 23.03.2019 (ed. of 30.12.2020) "On approval of the Methodology for the formation of the urban environment quality index"). In the above-mentioned Methodological Recommendations for the preparation of urban planning design standards, for example, for law enforcement facilities, pedestrian accessibility is equal to the distance covered by a person in 15 minutes, which is equivalent to 1000 meters.

Based on this, it can be established that in our case, to determine pedestrian accessibility in this study, it is advisable to take a value equal to 1 kilometer, but in a straight line for a simplified calculation of distances. Also, in order to gradate the distances between the court and the authorities, it is necessary to establish its own "urban proxemics" in order to know which geographical objects are located at a close distance (i.e. up to 500 meters), and which are at a very close distance (i.e. less than 200 meters), thereby determining the convenience of the location of bodies for employees, participants in the criminal process and for the general population.

Such close proximity of district courts should contribute not only to ensuring access to justice for participants in the proceedings, but also to ensure the rapid movement of the criminal case from the stage of preliminary investigation to the stage of preparing the case for trial, including also the accelerated transfer of all materials when returning the criminal case to the prosecutor on the grounds provided for in Article 237 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

A study of the location of district courts of general jurisdiction in the Tyumen region showed the following.  Thus, 89.4% (17 out of 19) of district courts are located within walking distance from the district administration. Moreover, 7 district courts are located at a close distance, and 6 courts are located at a very close distance. It is noteworthy that in the Sorokinsky district, the district court and the district administration of this municipality are located in the same building. 

73.68% (14 out of 19) of the district courts of the Tyumen region are located within walking distance from the district prosecutor's office, i.e. at a distance of less than 1 kilometer in a straight line. Moreover, 8 district courts are located at a close distance, and 5 courts are located at a very close distance. This situation gives certain advantages and plays an important role in establishing procedural and other ties. For example, article 246 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation establishes the requirements for the mandatory participation of the public prosecutor at the trial stage when considering criminal cases by the court. In his absence, the court cannot start a court session.

In the remaining 5 municipalities, district courts are located somewhat further from district administrations and district prosecutor's offices on the territory of one settlement, but within 1.5–3.5 kilometers. The exception is the Uvatsky District Court, which, for the reasons stated above, is located even further from the district administration and from the district prosecutor's office, besides being separated from them by the Irtysh River.

84.2% (16 out of 19) of the district courts of general jurisdiction of the Tyumen region are located in close walking distance from the structural divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, namely from the intermunicipal and district departments of internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (the distance to the departments of the district police commissioners of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was not taken into account). Moreover, 8 of them are located at a close distance, and 5 - at a very close distance. Such a close neighborly location also plays an important role in establishing procedural and other ties. The rest of the structural divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in other municipalities of the Tyumen region are located not so far from the district courts - within 1.5 kilometers in a straight line.

Regarding the neighborhood of the structural units of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation with the district courts of general jurisdiction of the Tyumen region, the situation is not quite rosy. Only 6 district courts are located within walking distance from the investigative bodies of the RF IC. There are currently no investigative bodies of the RF IC in 10 municipalities of the Tyumen Region. And the burden of investigating crimes committed in these territories is assigned to the neighboring interdistrict investigative departments of the SU IC of the Russian Federation in the Tyumen region, which in general makes certain difficulties in the investigation of criminal cases and the transfer of cases to the district court through the Prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation. Therefore, it should be considered necessary to increase the number of investigative departments of the SU IC of the Russian Federation in the Tyumen Region in municipalities and municipal districts.

The proximity of the district courts of general jurisdiction to the investigative bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the IC of the Russian Federation also affects the quality of the investigation of criminal cases to a certain extent, for example, based on the requirements of Article 29 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, when deciding whether to initiate petitions before the court for the election of a preventive measure in the form of detention, house arrest, bail or prohibition certain actions against the suspect. In addition, such a neighborhood is necessary for the investigation to quickly resolve the issue of initiating a petition before the court for an inspection, search or seizure of a dwelling, for the seizure of property and correspondence, for monitoring and recording negotiations, for the temporary removal of a suspect or accused from office, etc.

Separately, it is worth considering the issue of transport accessibility of district courts of general jurisdiction in the Tyumen region. The author previously conducted similar studies when studying the issue of determining the transport accessibility of remote settlements of the Nizhnevartovsk district of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra ^{[14, pp. 117-126]}. However, in that scientific analysis, emphasis was placed on studying the coefficient of transport accessibility of certain remote settlements of the municipality through the prism of material costs and the total time spent on the trip. The present study involves studying the degree of remoteness of airports, railway stations and bus stations from district courts of general jurisdiction in order to determine to what extent existing transport communications in the region ensure transport accessibility to justice.

Based on the general established town-planning rules, passenger stations (railway, automobile, water transport and air terminals) should be located, providing transport links with the city center, between stations, with residential and industrial areas (SP 42.13330.2016. A set of rules. Urban planning. Planning and development of urban and rural settlements. Updated version of SNiP 2.07.01-89 (approved by the Order of the Ministry of Construction of Russia dated 30.12.2016 N 1034/pr)).  To what extent these objects have a transport connection with the district courts of general jurisdiction, it remains to be seen. It is also worth adding that the use of personal transport by participants in criminal proceedings also plays a key role in transport accessibility, since in some cases it is easier to get to court by car than by public transport, train or plane.

Do not forget that there may be situations when nonresident participants in criminal proceedings living in other districts and regions of Russia are required to come to participate in a court hearing on criminal cases. This is clearly seen in cases when, for example, criminal cases are considered in district courts for crimes under Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, if the guilty person or victims or witnesses are non-local. Often such traffic accidents occur on federal highways passing through the Tyumen region.

An example of such a situation is a criminal case that was considered in 2018 by the Uvatsky District Court of the Tyumen region. The act described in the verdict occurred in the Uvatsky district (near the border with the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra) on the 517 kilometer of the Tyumen – Khanty-Mansiysk highway, when two cars collided on the roadway, one of which was moving over the speed limit, and the second was turning around for the subsequent arrival at a gas station. As a result of the accident, several passengers in the culprit's car were harmed of varying severity. Both the defendant, the victims, and the witnesses were from different cities: Tobolsk, Nefteyugansk, Tyumen. Almost all of them took part in the court session, having arrived in Uvat from these cities, including the defendant, since a preventive measure was chosen against him in the form of a subscription not to leave, which in some cases, by agreement of the investigator, the inquirer and the court, the right to leave the place of residence based on the meaning of Article 102 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, including including for participation in the court session. By the way, in this case, the parties had the opportunity to use Part 4 of Article 240 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and file a petition for consideration of the case using a video conferencing system, but for unknown reasons they did not use this right.

With regard to bus stations, it should be said that in many urban and rural settlements they should be located within walking distance for the population living in these settlements. At the same time, the time spent on access to the bus station, according to the Methodological Recommendations for the preparation of standards for urban planning design, should not exceed 45 minutes. If we translate these parameters into distance, we get 2-3 kilometers along the streets (or 1-2 kilometers in a straight line). As for district centers, bus stations should also be located within walking distance from government bodies and institutions, including district courts of general jurisdiction.

A study conducted in the Tyumen region showed that only 9 out of 19 district courts are located within walking distance (less than 1 kilometer in a straight line) from the bus station. Another 5 bus stations are located relatively close to the district courts – within 2 kilometers in a straight line. The availability of almost three-quarters of bus stations for district courts is undoubtedly a plus for those persons who come to the district center from rural settlements of the district to participate in a court hearing on criminal cases, for example, as a victim, witness, civil plaintiff or civil defendant, including their representatives, based on the requirements of Article 249 and Article 250 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

It is necessary to take into account the fact that the other bus stations are located much further from the district court, but within 3-4 kilometers. And, if the remote location of the bus stations in Zavodoukovsk and in Ishim is due to the fact that these settlements are not rural, but urban districts with a relatively large territory and population, then the remote location of the bus station and the district court in Uvat, as already noted above, is due to the location of these objects on different banks of the Irtysh River and the absence of year-round transport communication between them. Despite this, personal motor transport remains the most frequently used type of vehicle for traveling to district courts for court sessions. And many settlements in municipal districts are located relatively close to district centers. Moreover, many courts of the Tyumen region (78.9% of the total number of district courts) have a full-fledged car on-site guest parking next to the building. However, to what extent they are suitable, for example, for low-mobility groups of the population, it is still necessary to find out. Obviously, this requires separate independent scientific research, because it also affects access to justice to a certain extent.

From the point of view of railway transport infrastructure, the Tyumen Region is relatively well developed. The Trans–Siberian railway Yekaterinburg - Tyumen – Omsk passes through the region. There is also a railway line Tyumen – Tobolsk – Surgut – Novy Urengoy with a branch to Nizhnevartovsk from Ult-Yagun station. Suburban and interregional passenger traffic is carried out in these directions, which also contributes to ensuring access to justice for participants in criminal proceedings, especially for those who need to come from remote settlements, or to participate in the review of a criminal case on appeal or cassation.

If we talk about access to the court through the prism of railway communications, then the research was based on existing railway stations, where passenger trains and commuter trains stop for boarding and disembarking passengers. Sidings, freight stations, or stations for technical stopping of trains were not taken as the basis of the study, since they are not intended for passenger service and are not suitable for determining the transport accessibility of courts of general jurisdiction. For the study, the moment is important that between the court (or the district center where it is located) there was a paved road to the railway station to ensure year-round traffic (i.e. unpaved roads, seasonal roads or winter roads were not taken into account, since they are not always able to provide year-round transport accessibility). At the same time, to determine the transport accessibility of railway stations, the distance in a straight line equal to 80 kilometers (or 100 kilometers along a broken line equivalent to 1-1.5 hours of traffic by motor transport) was taken into account.

The conducted research has shown that 18 out of 19 district courts of general jurisdiction of the Tyumen region have access and access to railway transport – to railway stations, i.e. they are located at a distance of 80 kilometers or less in a straight line from each other. Moreover, 6 district centers, where district courts are located, are also large railway stations. The only exception is the Vikulovsky District Court, which is the furthest from the railway than other district courts. But even this distance is not quite large by modern standards, and is 104 kilometers in a straight line. Moreover, the Vikulovsky district itself is the most remote municipality from the regional center in the Tyumen region. But in comparison with the neighboring Kurgan region, the district courts of general jurisdiction of the Tyumen Region from a geographical point of view have somewhat worse access to railway communication.

This is primarily due to the fact that, despite the large length of railways (882 kilometers in the Tyumen region and 743 kilometers in the Kurgan region), the Tyumen Region is more than twice as large in area as the neighboring region (160122 square kilometers versus 71488 square kilometers). And this is without taking into account the territories of autonomous districts. As a result, many rural settlements of the Tyumen region, and the municipal centers themselves with district courts, as already noted above, are located at a considerable distance from the communication routes. Therefore, residents of these municipalities have to rely on other modes of transport.

Unlike motor transport and rail transport, aviation communication in the Tyumen region is not so developed. Looking ahead, it should be said that the insufficient number of airports, coupled with insufficiently developed small aircraft, creates many problems for the development of transport communications in the region, and, moreover, negatively affects access to justice, including when considering criminal cases in the court of first instance.

In the course of the scientific study, the analysis of the remoteness of district courts from the nearest airports was carried out.  Moreover, Class A and Class B airports were taken as a basis, capable of receiving various types of civil aircraft, including modern airliners for flights no longer within the municipality itself or the Subject of the Russian Federation, but for air communication with other regions of our country. For the study, the moment is important that between the court (or the district center where it is located) there was a paved road to the airport to ensure year-round traffic. At the same time, in order to determine the transport accessibility of airports, in contrast to the distance to railway stations, the distance in a straight line up to 200 kilometers (or up to 240 kilometers along a conditional polyline equivalent to a maximum of 3-4 hours of traffic by motor transport) was taken into account. Such a parameter for determining the accessibility of airports for the population was established based on the positions of a number of scientists who calculated that if 4 hours and more are spent on the road, then it's time to talk about transport discrimination of the population in suburban communication ^{[15, pp. 78-89]}. If less than 4 hours are spent on the road, then such a distance to the airport is considered acceptable. At the same time, their study was just about air transport accessibility.

Why do we need to know about the location of airports and their distance from district courts of general jurisdiction? The fact is that access to air traffic plays a huge role for nonresident participants in the trial, living in other regions of the Russian Federation, for whom aviation is an effective transport in order to quickly and promptly get to court. Moreover, air traffic also benefits foreign participants in criminal proceedings from countries near and far abroad, who, due to various objective and subjective reasons, are involved in the consideration of criminal cases. Therefore, like rail transport and motor transport, civil aviation is a key factor in ensuring access to justice, not only in criminal cases, but also in civil, administrative and arbitration cases.

In the Tyumen region, near the regional center, there is a large airport of international importance "Roshchino", capable of receiving aircraft for short, medium and long-haul airlines.  The airport is located disproportionately relative to the geographical center of the region, being on its periphery, as a result of which many municipal district centers (where there are district courts of general jurisdiction) are located at a considerable distance from this airport (more than 200 kilometers from the regional center and from Roshchino airport). Although this airport has a well-developed transport communication with many municipal districts (a developed road network and, in some cases, a railway network), but access for participants in legal proceedings in some cases may be difficult to it.

Thus, there is a need for the construction of new airports for those municipalities that are located at a distance of more than 200 kilometers from the regional center and the existing international airport. At least such a problem has been successfully solved relatively recently in Tobolsk through the construction and opening of a new Class 2 airport. And now residents of Uvatsky, Tobolsk and Vagaysky districts have good access to air transport. Consequently, access to justice for participants in legal proceedings using civil aviation is also provided.

Taking into account the socio-economic, administrative-territorial and transport specifics of the Tyumen region, it should be noted that this region needs another airport, which should be located in the Ishim district of the municipal district near the city of Ishim.  Then Golyshmanovsky, Abatsky, Aromashevsky, Vikulovsky, Sorokinsky, Kazansky, Sladkovsky and Berdyuzhsky districts will be able to get direct access to air transport.

These types of transport in the Tyumen region play an important role in criminal proceedings, in particular, with regard to ensuring access not just to justice, but access of participants in criminal proceedings to appeal and cassation courts of general jurisdiction located in other regions of Russia, and then provided that these persons have expressed a desire to personally and directly participate in the court session, and not using a video conferencing system. The author has already conducted research on this topic ^{[16, pp. 59-69]}. Then it was possible to establish that for many regions of Siberia and the Far East, some appellate courts of general jurisdiction are difficult to access for the population. In this connection, it was proposed for the territory of Western Siberia to create its own court of appeal of general jurisdiction, which would simplify access to justice for the local population.

What conclusions were reached based on the results of the study? One way or another, but three-quarters of the district courts of general jurisdiction in the Tyumen region have access to justice from a geographical point of view. First of all, this concerns the pedestrian accessibility of district courts in relation to local self-government bodies and law enforcement agencies located on the territory of one municipality. In some cases, rural specifics and the small size of some district centers only contribute to this, simplifying access to justice.

Most district courts of general jurisdiction (about 3/4 of the total number of district courts studied) are located in the center of settlements and on the central street, which also contributes to some extent to improving access to justice and simplifies in some cases the search for the location of the judicial authority.

In other district centers, pedestrian accessibility is complicated by the absence of the courts of general jurisdiction themselves (due to a decrease in the population in municipal areas) and also the absence of investigative bodies in some municipal areas, which to some extent may negatively affect the quality of the preliminary investigation.

As for the transport accessibility of courts of general jurisdiction, many district centers where the relevant judicial authorities are located have well-developed transport communications, including access to the railway and airports. The only exceptions are those municipal district centers that are removed from these transport communications for a considerable distance, or have a water obstacle, for example, in the form of a wide navigable river without bridges and pontoon structures that do not allow the population to get unhindered access to justice. Therefore, from a non-procedural point of view, a proposal suggests itself to solve the above problems in the Tyumen region by building a bridge crossing over the Irtysh River in the village of Uvat and building a Class 2 airport near the city of Ishim.

From a procedural point of view, one of the solutions to the described problems related to ensuring access to justice is, although there are a number of problems ^{[17, pp.73-76]}, the use of modern digital technologies, for example, video conferencing systems ^{[18, pp. 103-106]} in accordance with the requirements of Part 4 Article 240 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, but only if there is access to a high-speed Internet line and if it is possible to participate in the court session online directly from home or work, and not from a judicial authority.

Despite the massive digitalization of society, authorities and the state, which also implies the creation of a digital justice system, it is worth noting that "judicial migration" of participants in criminal proceedings will still occur in the near future, since everyone has the right to personal participation in a court hearing (including also participation in the administration of justice), and the state has an obligation to ensure the requirement of immediacy and oral proceedings in accordance with Article 240 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.

In the end, it is worth saying the following. If we move a little away from criminal proceedings and look at the development of accessibility to justice from the point of view of geo-economic and geo-legal aspects of the development of the region, then the Tyumen Region, as a suburbanized zone, fits very well into the Trans-Ural "conurbation quadrangle", the vertices of which are polycentric agglomerations of Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen and Kurgan with branches to the Perm Territory and autonomous districts. In this space, taking into account historical, geographical, economic and legal features, it is more expedient to create interregional investigative and federal judicial bodies, in particular its own court of appeal of general jurisdiction (the Court of Cassation of general jurisdiction has already been established and is based in Chelyabinsk), as well as new forms of federal judicial bodies.

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