Insignificance in criminal law: theoretical and practical aspects

Introduction. The article studies an urgent topic – assessing an act for its public danger in accordance with the norms of the criminal law, and, accordingly, defining it as insignificant according to a number of criteria. Law enforcement and judicial practice has recently faced the fact that acts that formally fall under the signs of a crime are regarded as insignificant, which entails the termination of criminal cases or the refusal to initiate them. Consequently, it is necessary to develop scientifically based criteria for determining insignificance in criminal law and consolidate them in the criminal law and at the level of explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Materials and methods. To fulfill the tasks set by the authors, an arsenal of scientific methods was used: dialectical, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, systemic, formal-legal, historical, relatively legal, logical.

Analysis. The article studies the current legislation of the Russian Federation in the area under consideration, including the transformation of the criminal law for a significant historical period, the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the application of this provision of the criminal law and judicial practice, the scientific works of Russian legal scholars on this topic, and the criminal legislation of foreign countries .

Results. The authors consider the problems of insignificance in criminal law and scientifically justify the need to develop and formally consolidate the criteria for classifying acts as insignificant, which will make it possible in law enforcement practice to distinguish them from crimes. The study updates the existing scientific knowledge on the topic under consideration, has a scientific novelty in terms of the criteria proposed by the authors. The authors also propose a revision of the criminal law, and some suggestions to the Plenum of the RF Armed Forces on a more detailed presentation of its application.

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