Transdisciplinarity as a Means of Achieving the Unity of Terminology and Regulation Sources (Using the Example of an Accusation Casus Under Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)

Abstract

The paper presents a terminological analysis of a court casus when an underage person was accused of a crime under Art. 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (the RF). The analysis established a terminological ambiguity, as well as an absence of theoretical and practical unity in the understanding of the categories «other actions of sexual nature», «helpless state of a person» and «helplessness». The authors present a detailed demonstration of the uncovered terminological ambiguity using references to the current federal legislation, subordinate legal acts of the RF, as well as Decrees of the Constitutional Court of the RF and Decrees of the Plenums of the Supreme Court of the RF containing normative prescriptions and the results of generalized court practice’s assessment. The context of the stated issues is used to define specific features of other debatable and ambiguous categories of jurisprudence (the source of law, the abuse of the right and so on), the authors stress the importance of conducting an interdisciplinary analysis of the contents of the analyzed ambiguous categories and terms of the legal science with the purpose of finding an opportunity for their adequate interpretation, including an interpretation for legal practice. A detailed examination of the abovementioned problem of ambiguous terminology using only a formal-legal (dogmatic) method allowed the authors to conclude that it is necessary to apply not only an interdisciplinary research methodology, but also a transdisciplinary approach in order to achieve a unity in understanding specific legal terminology by the methods of other sciences, including forensic psychology, sexology and forensic psychiatry. This conclusion is made for both the special categories examined in the article (other acts of sexual nature, helpless state of a person, helplessness) and special legal terminology in general. The authors outline the problem implementing such a transdisciplinary approach to create unified sources of normative information, which could ensure consistent and uniform law enforcement practices of public authorities and their officials if cases when doubts arise concerning the contents of multi-purpose and objectively inter-sectorial categories and legal terms. The authors come to the fundamental conclusion that a quality research methodology needed in the conditions of the modern society of the 21st century.