Prospects for the Introduction of Criminal Misconduct into Domestic Criminal Legislation. Draft Laws of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation

Abstract

In the light of doctrinal discussions regarding the expediency of supplementing domestic criminal legislation with the category «criminal offense», the paper examines the legislative initiatives of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2018 and 2021. The author records both the revision of the original draft law and the unresolved nature of a number of significant issues. These include the ratio of criminal misconduct and insignificance; the totality of the commission of a crime by a person and a criminal offense; the legal assessment of the commission of acts by a person, a number of which (or all) the relationship between the circumstances of exemption from criminal liability in connection with the application of other measures of a criminal nature (due to the recognition of the act as a criminal offense) and other circumstances of exemption from criminal liability (for example, in connection with active repentance or reconciliation with the victim). It is argued that a thorough revision of the list of criminal offenses is necessary. Specific practical recommendations are formulated for its formation by not only classifying crimes as such, but also by criminalizing common administrative offenses (as an example, data on the number of persons brought to administrative responsibility under Articles 6.1.1 (beatings) and 7.27 (petty theft) of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation are given). The author speaks about the expediency of including the institution of criminal offenses in the domestic legal system due to the predominance of the expected positive effect and the debatable nature of a number of arguments against the introduction of criminal misconduct (rejection of the concept of a «small but tough» criminal law; blurring the boundaries between crimes and offenses; leveling the difference between punishment and other measures of a criminal nature, etc.).