State crimes in the system the Special part of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Abstract

A retrospective analysis of the formation of norms on state crimes is inseparable from the history of Russia’s development and allows us to determine their place in the system of a special part of criminal legislation of various historical periods. In the article, the author puts up for discussion one of the important debatable issues of legal science and practice – what is primary, the state (as a social institution) or a person and, as a result of possible answers to this question, analyzes the legal mechanisms of state protection of human rights and freedoms. Using the example of a comparative legal study of the composition of state crimes in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1960 and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996, as well as scientific discussions on this topic, the author formulates the conclusion that the analysis of the tasks facing the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1922, 1926, 1960, indicates the focus of codified acts on the protection of existing public relationships. In Article 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996, for the first time, in addition to protection, the task of preventing crimes is fixed. Its implementation, in turn, predetermined the appearance in a Special part of the Criminal Code, including in Chapter 29, of incentive norms on the release of persons who have committed specific crimes from criminal liability in the presence of appropriate positive behavior.