The concept of criminal law: the evolution in time
To date, a single and integral criminalthe right in jurisprudence has not yet been found and worked out. And for that there are two good reasons. First, the criminal law is an independent branch, and a separate sphere of scientific legal knowledge, and the same discipline studied by future specialists. Secondly, the view on the concept and objectives of criminal law in our state has changed over time.
The name "criminal" came to us from Ancient Rus. Our ancestors called that part of the law (it does not make sense to talk about industries in those days), which prescribed punishment for terrible antisocial acts - crimes. For the crime, the perpetrator had to answer with his head, that is, with his life. The death penalty was the most common punishment. The criminal law should have a frightening effect on people. The purpose of criminal law was to prevent conflicts in society. In the Middle Ages, cases were initiated solely on the victim's treatment. Naturally, then the concept of criminal law, relevant to the present, simply could not be formed.
Then, with the strengthening of the state,To form special bodies and structures engaged in the investigation of cases and the exposure of criminals. The first set of exclusively criminal legal regulations was issued under Peter the Great and was called the Military article. Later, the commission under Catherine II prepared the Charter of Deanery, which emphasized the special role of the state and state bodies in criminal law. Naturally, at this stage the notion of criminal law has significantly changed. The main goal of punishment was to recognize the education of a respectable citizen in a person. In the era of enlightenment, service to the state was considered a natural duty of every noble citizen, and committing a crime was perceived by the public as anti-state and immoral behavior.
Since the eighteenth century, scientific works have appeared,devoted to questions of legal and social nature of crimes and punishments. The author of the first textbook on this discipline was Osip Goreglyad. In the nineteenth century, the popular social and humanitarian sciences penetrated the popular ideas of positivism in the West. Now, when deciding questions about the improvement of the system of punishments, the authors turned not only to their own thoughts and assumptions, but also to experience, experiment, and monitoring of convicts.
In Soviet times, once again formeda new view on the concept and subject of criminal law. The works of prerevolutionary thinkers in jurisprudence are recognized as fundamentally wrong, there is a rejection of imperial legislation and the adoption of new regulations. Here, criminal law serves primarily the state, and not society. The application of the analogy of law and law is permitted, and for each "system" and power "unsympathetic" to the party system and authority, an article can be selected for each "enemy of the people". The code opens with a section on crimes against the state. The human personality is not properly protected, crimes against the person are described only in the middle of the criminal law. Naturally, under the influence of time, under the influence of socio-political processes taking place in the state, the concept of criminal law is distorted.
Post-Soviet Russia has entered a new stagedevelopment of law. Today, crimes against the person are considered to be the most serious, and all the formulations are divided into those on which cases of public prosecution are initiated, those on which the application of the victim is needed to start the proceedings and to the cases of private accusation. It is not ruled out that in the near future a legal concept of criminal law will appear in the domestic jurisprudence.
