Reasonable Deadline in the Prior to Criminal Legal Procedure Phase

In Article 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure enacted in 2013, given the principle of increasing the speed of criminal investigations, drafters of Iran Criminal Policy obliged judicial bodies to investigate and decide on alleged charges in the shortest possible time with complete impartiality and independence and avoid any measures that interfere or prolong the process of criminal procedure. Therefore, investigating in the shortest possible time or in a sense reasonable deadline, as one of the constituent elements of a fair trial, requires some explanations. In this regard, an attempt is initially been made to recognize the concept of reasonable deadline at the stage prior to criminal procedure (part one). After identifying the concept of reasonable deadlines, as a component of case management in the criminal courts, foundations of reasonable deadline are examined from the jurisprudence and criminology perspectives (part two) and in the third part of this article, aspects of criminal policy are investigated. Moreover, in the fourth part, using a supportive approach, executive guarantees of failure to adhere to the reasonable deadline are discussed.