On stare decisis in criminal law

Abstract

The article considers the place of the principle of stare decisis and the effect of its key parameters in the context of modern criminal law. The author proceeds from the fact that the precedent character of criminal law positions of the highest court directly follows from the constitutional requirements of equality of all before the law and the court, describes the basis of this principle in Russian realities. The author shows the groundlessness of the explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the chaotic formation of its quarterly reviews. The author proposes not to consider the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation as precedent, leaving among them only the decisions of the Supreme Court regardless of their inclusion in the review of practice. Based on the research of the own telegram channel “Ugolovnaya practica VS RF” and more than 800 judicial acts for the last 3 years, it has been proved that there is a trend of precedent justice, as the courts of first instance actively motivate their decisions by elaborated positions and references to the decisions of the criminal board in specific cases.