The provision concerning the limits of judicial proceedings in a criminal case (Art. 252 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation) consists of two short sentences. However, their true meaning is impossible to describe in a couple of phrases. As a result, many reviews of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation contain, in one way or another, an analysis of cases, where the court made errors related to the limits of judicial proceedings. In the article, the author analyzes all existing postulates concerning the limits of judicial proceedings to establish their legal nature, role in the system of procedural relations; the text is supplemented with examples from relevant court practice. The author proposes a comprehensive method for review of such an important general concept of judicial proceedings as the limits, since specialized textbooks and guides do not provide such an in-depth analysis