Introduction. The rapid pace of development of social relations has made it impossible to create stable, universal criminal procedure rules that regulate the full range of legal phenomena arising in society. In such situation, the legislator is forced to construct legal norms, providing law enforcement agencies with the opportunity to act at their discretion in certain cases in order to make the optimal decision in a criminal case in a timely manner. Methods. The dialectical method of scientific cognition formed the methodological basis of the study. In addition, general scientific (logical, systematic, comparative) and specific scientific (formal-legal, structural-functional) methods were used in writing the scientific article. Results. The article makes an attempt at a scientific and practical reinterpretation of discretion as a criminal procedural phenomenon demanded by modern society and law. A substantive analysis of the semantic content of this term is conducted. Its philosophical meaning is defined at a higher critical-reflective level of understanding, the semiotics of connotation are examined, and the main scientific approaches to criminal procedural law are analysed. Conclusion. The problem of discretion in criminal procedural law is primarily an unresolved problem of conceptual apparatus. Legal science has not developed a unified approach to understanding the substantive meaning of this legally established term. At the same time, discretion is a special instrument of national law that contributes to the flexibility and renewal of legal norms. Discretion can only exist in a developed legal system and elicit a positive emotional response from individuals, allowing general legal provisions to be adapted to the realities of law enforcement practice.