In the article, the author attempts to consider criminal proceedings and its substantive, legal and social prerequisites from the perspective of conflict theory. The author substantiates that understanding the universal laws of social interaction, as well as the laws of systems, is a prerequisite for effective knowledge of the features and problems of criminal justice. The development of new criminal procedural forms, institutions, as well as ways of procedural interaction and means of resolving criminal law conflicts should take into account the specifics of society and the rules according to which it operates, since first of all criminal proceedings are implemented according to social and systemic laws and only secondarily according to legal ones.