Article 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Objectives of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the latest edition:

Article 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Objectives of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

1. The objectives of this Code are: protection of human and civil rights and freedoms, property, public order and public safety, the environment, the constitutional system of the Russian Federation from criminal attacks, ensuring peace and security of mankind, as well as crime prevention.

2. To carry out these tasks, this Code establishes the basis and principles of criminal liability, determines what acts dangerous to the individual, society or the state are recognized as crimes, and establishes types of punishments and other measures of a criminal legal nature for committing crimes.

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The protective task of criminal law

The protective task, traditional for criminal legislation, in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is formulated on the basis of prioritization of criminal legal protection.

The list of objects of criminal legal protection reflects the hierarchy of values (person - society - state), which is a logical consequence of what is enshrined in Art. 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation the priority of universal human values. This priority also serves as the basis for the structure of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but it does not follow from it that any of the objects is subject to more or less protection compared to others.

The objects of such protection are:

the rights and freedoms of every person and citizen, which are the highest value, inalienable and belonging to everyone from birth (Articles 17 - 56 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation);
property (according to Article 8 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, private, state, municipal and other forms of property are equally recognized and protected);
public order, which is understood as a set of social relations that ensure: public peace, observance of public morality, uninterrupted operation of transport, enterprises, institutions and organizations;
physical and moral integrity of the individual; public security as a state of protection of vital interests of society from internal and external threats;
environment (Article 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Federal Law of January 10, 2002 N 7-FZ “On Environmental Protection”);
the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, the content of which includes the definition of the form of state power in the Russian Federation and its source, methods of its implementation, division into legislative, executive and judicial, the limits of the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, the principles of the federal structure, etc. (Chapter 1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation);
peace and security of mankind (Section XII “Crimes against the peace and security of mankind” of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The means of solving the protective task of criminal law are:

determination of the basis of criminal liability, which is clearly stated in Art. 8 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which the only basis for criminal liability is the commission of an act containing all the elements of a crime provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation;
defining the principles of criminal liability;
criminalization of acts, i.e. fixing them in the law as criminal and criminally punishable, which is the result of the process of identifying socially dangerous forms of behavior, studying its causes, signs and consequences, determining the admissibility, possibility and expediency of combating it by criminal legal means;
penalization of acts, i.e. establishing sanctions and limits of punishment for a particular crime;
establishing certain criminal legal consequences of committing crimes.

Commentary to Art. 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

1. Criminal legal regulation is a necessary element of the state system of ensuring the national security of the country. National security is a state of protection of the individual, society and the state from internal and external threats, which ensures the implementation of the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens of the Russian Federation, decent quality and standard of living, sovereignty, independence, state and territorial integrity, sustainable socio-economic development of the Russian Federation (Clause 6 of the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation). ——————————— See: Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of December 31, 2015 N 683 “On the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation.”

Criminal law is one of the legal means of ensuring national security. By virtue of Art. Art. 1, 2, 55 (part 3), 71 (clauses “c”, “o”) and 76 (part 1) of the Constitution in the Russian Federation as a democratic rule-of-law state in order to regulate and protect the rights and freedoms of man and citizen , ensuring legality, law and order and public safety, criminal law prohibitions on the commission of socially dangerous acts, criminal prosecution and punishment for their violation are established by law. Guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of man and citizen and ensuring their protection, the state has the right to establish in federal law restrictions on rights and freedoms in order to ensure the defense of the country and the security of the state (Part 3 of Article 55 of the Constitution), including providing for criminal liability for acts committed to the detriment of the basic values of the constitutional system. The use of criminal liability measures is justified, in addition, by the need to ensure those specified in Part 3 of Art. 55 of the Constitution aims to protect the health, morals, rights and legitimate interests of other persons. ——————————— See: Def. Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated June 19, 2007 N 591-О-О “On the refusal to accept for consideration the complaint of citizen Maria Aleksandrovna Firsova about the violation of her constitutional rights by paragraph “a” of part one of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.”

See: Post. Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated December 20, 1995 N 17-P “In the case of verifying the constitutionality of a number of provisions of paragraph “a” of Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR in connection with the complaint of citizen V.A. Smirnova” // NW RF. 1996. N 1. Art. 54.

See: Post. Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated April 25, 2001 N 6-P “In the case of verifying the constitutionality of Article 265 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in connection with the complaint of citizen A.A. Shevyakova" // Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation. 2001. N 5; Fast. Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated March 19, 2003 N 3-P.

2. The commented article defines the tasks of the Criminal Code, and, consequently, the place and role of criminal law in the system of ensuring national security. The normative setting of two tasks for criminal law has become traditional: protective and preventive, the implementation of which constitutes the implementation of the legal functions of the industry. Along with this, the science of criminal law argues for the achievement by criminal law of other general social tasks: educational, value-oriented, socially integrative, and ensuring justice.

3. The protective task of criminal law is to protect, by criminal legal means, such socially significant objects as the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, property, public order and public safety, the environment, the constitutional system of the Russian Federation, peace and security of mankind. Despite all the socio-political significance of the list of objects of protection given in Part 1 of the commented article, it is worth noting that it is incomplete and inconsistent when compared with the list of objects placed under the protection of criminal law and defined in the names of the chapters of the Special Part of the Criminal Code. This list is for the most part indicative.

It is generally accepted that Part 1 of the commented article reflects the humanistic orientation of criminal legislation, assigning first place in the system of objects of criminal legal protection to the rights and freedoms of man and citizen. Meanwhile, such an assessment does not fully correspond to the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation, which, when listing strategic national priorities, puts the country's defense, state and public security in the first place (paragraph 31).

4. The means of solving the protective task of criminal law are:

- determination of the basis for criminal liability, which is clearly stated in Art. 8 of the Criminal Code, according to which the only basis for criminal liability is the commission of an act containing all the elements of a crime provided for by the Criminal Code;

— determination of the principles of criminal liability;

- criminalization of acts, i.e. fixing them in the law as criminal and criminally punishable, which is the result of the process of identifying socially dangerous forms of behavior, studying its causes, signs and consequences, determining the admissibility, possibility and expediency of combating it by criminal legal means;

— penalization of actions, i.e. establishing sanctions and limits of punishment for a particular crime;

— establishment of certain criminal legal consequences of committing crimes.

5. The preventive task of criminal law is to use criminal legal means in the general system of government measures aimed at identifying, eliminating, weakening or neutralizing the causes and conditions of crimes, as well as deterring individuals from committing crimes. The Criminal Code plays a large, but far from the main role in crime prevention. Criminal law acts as a last resort, the last argument of the authorities in preventing crimes, when preventing harm through other legal means is impossible.

The main directions of the criminal legal functioning of crime prevention are expressed in the definition of objects and directions of criminological prevention; in the criminal legal impact on the causes and conditions of crimes; in criminal law influence on the consciousness of unstable citizens (general preventive influence); in the impact of criminal law on persons who have committed crimes to prevent their repeated commission (private preventive impact). ——————————— Sarkisova E.A. Preventive role of criminal law. Minsk, 1979. P. 23.

Crime prevention is achieved by the regulatory provisions of the General and Special parts of the criminal law. In the General Part, the preventive effect is contained in instructions on voluntary renunciation of a crime, on circumstances excluding the criminality of an act, on active repentance as a basis for exemption from criminal liability, on compulsory psychiatric treatment of persons who have committed socially dangerous acts in a state of insanity, on the establishment of criminal liability for incitement to crimes, on the preventive purpose of PMVV. In the Special Part of the Criminal Law, the preventive load is carried by instructions on responsibility for behavior that impedes the detection of crimes, for the involvement of certain persons in the commission of crimes or antisocial actions, for crimes that serve as criminogenic conditions favorable to the commission of more serious crimes, instructions on special cases of active repentance . The consistent implementation of the idea of the inevitability of a criminal legal response to every crime committed also has a significant preventive effect.

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