Taking into account the comparative-legal method, the article highlights the legal basis for the transfer of criminal prosecution (legal proceedings) of foreign states, belonging to the Romano-Germanic (continental law systems), Anglo-Saxon legal family (common law systems), as well as mixed type. Due to the fact that the effectiveness of this type of international cooperation in the field of criminal proceedings directly depends on the elaboration of the norms of national law and their compliance with international legal regulations, the author paid considerable attention to the legal regulation of those states with which the competent authorities of the Russian Federation had relations in the field of criminal Justice. The analysis used materialistic dialectics, legal hermeneutics (legal exegesis), special legal, comparative legal methods, sociological and linguistic approaches (component analysis of lexical meanings and analysis of translation transformations), as well as the forecasting method. The theoretical basis for the study was the work of both domestic and foreign lawyers, and among the regulatory framework, both international documents and national legislation of the Russian Federation and a number of foreign countries were highlighted. It is also important to use as an empirical basis for the study the materials of some criminal cases in which the intersystem institution of transfer of criminal prosecution (legal proceedings) was involved. Based on the results of the study, appropriate conclusions were drawn that have both theoretical and applied purposes. In particular, the author believes that the national legislation of many foreign countries contains provisions that in one way or another affect the transfer of criminal prosecution (legal proceedings). Some sovereign governments regulate this institution in general terms and relate it to the scope of providing legal assistance in criminal cases, others, on the contrary, detail it and distinguish it along with other types of international cooperation in the field of criminal proceedings (extradition, legal assistance in criminal cases, recognition and execution decisions of foreign judicial authorities), which we believe is justified. Therefore, it seems necessary to take into account the legislative experience of foreign colleagues, as a result of which we note the urgent procedural need for the adoption of new and additions to the existing domestic criminal procedural norms governing the issues of sending and accepting criminal case materials to/from a foreign state (a) in order to optimize this area of international activity of the Russian Federation, the national legislation of many foreign countries contains provisions that in one way or another affect the transfer of criminal prosecution (legal proceedings).