Vectors of the Criminal Policy of Legal Regulation of Ccircumstances That Exclude the Criminal Character of an Action

Abstract

At the current stage of social development, the protection of the interests of a person, society and the state from publically dangerous infringements is reaching a conceptually new level. Russian and foreign legislation, as well as theoretical publications, are paying more and more attention to the possibilities of the lawful infliction of harm under the circumstances that preclude the criminal character of an action. The abovementioned norms have a special place in criminal or other legislation because they contain clauses that allow inflicting harm on public relations protected by criminal law. Criminal legislation, recognized worldwide as penal in its essence (e.g. the Penal Code — «penal» being the synonym of «retributive», «punitive» and «vindictive») still contains a specific chapter devoted to such circumstances and includes norms that define the conditions and grounds for inflicting harm on public relations protected by criminal legislation, and this harm is recognized as lawful and even publically beneficial. These norms should be viewed as a specific legal phenomenon not only in Russian, but also in foreign criminal legislation and other types of legislation. However, the analysis of law enforcement practice does not allow to judge the effectiveness of their use by both law enforcement employees and citizens who protects their lawful rights and interests against publically dangerous infringements or engage in other publically beneficial behavior. In our opinion, the problems of law enforcement are connected with legislative support, and specifically with the area of substantive law. The authors of the article summarize many possibilities of using the norms of Chapter 8 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that have not been realized yet. They take into account and stress the isolation and independence of these norms, the necessity of their presence and reflection specifically in the criminal legislation. The authors also recommend to change the method of legal regulation of the circumstances that preclude the criminal character of the action and to use it as a basis for introducing significant changes in the contents of the abovementioned norms with the aim of improving the effectiveness of their enforcement in practice.