<strong >Annotation.The ongoing global trends towards procedural economy and minimisation of the degree of criminal reprisals are connected with the introduction into the criminal process of the beginning of expediency, which is of particular importance in the termination of criminal proceedings/persecution. The principle of expediency is present not only in Anglo-Saxon criminal procedure, but is now penetrating into continental criminal procedure, in particular German criminal procedure.

The article investigates the beginning of expediency in German criminal procedure, which is perceived ambiguously in science, but is becoming more and more widespread in law enforcement, which is confirmed by statistical data of the Federal Statistical Office of the Federal Republic of Germany. The paper considers the grounds for termination of criminal proceedings/persecution in German criminal proceedings, in which the beginning of expediency is most clearly manifested.

Modern Russian criminal proceedings are in the process of formation, where there already exist criminal procedural institutions characteristic of Anglo-Saxon (e.g., special procedure for taking a court decision when concluding a pre-trial cooperation agreement) and continental criminal proceedings (e.g., organisation of preliminary investigation, the principle of comprehensiveness, completeness and objectivity). Historically, Russian criminal proceedings belonged to the continental criminal process, one of the brightest representatives of which is German criminal proceedings, which have much in common with Russian criminal proceedings. Since the second half of the XX century, the beginning of expediency has been actively introduced into German criminal procedure, which has now supplanted the beginning of legality, which historically embodied German criminal procedure.

Familiarity with the German criminal process in the part of introduction of the beginning of expediency in the termination of criminal proceedings seems to be cognitive and useful for better understanding and further development of the Russian criminal process, for its possible differentiated regulation.