At the moment, one of the central issues in criminal law remains the principle of guilt as a special principle of criminal law. There are a huge number of monographs on this subject, and the authors are trying to figure it out in the scientific literature. However, full agreement on this issue has not yet been reached. Such discrepancies in the consideration of this principle often lead to a large number of judicial errors, which causes ordinary citizens to distrust the state system. This article will talk about what guilt is, and it will also give examples of the principles of guilt in criminal law.
A little bit about terminology
Note that this topic is complex and controversial, as in the interpretations of specialists you can see some discrepancies. Before you start considering what constitutes the principle of guilt in criminal law, you should understand what legislators mean by the term “guilt”. It is worth noting that throughout the entire existence of Russia in different epochs of its formation and development, there were different reasons for bringing people to criminal responsibility.
Now criminal science has come to the realization that an act can be considered criminal only when it was committed consciously and according to the will of the person who committed it. The culprit is vested solely in cases where he could be aware of his actions and manage his condition, and therefore it is impossible to condemn the insane. This has led to the fact that guilt has become one of the most important and necessary signs of the subjective side, a necessary part of the crime, without which criminal liability simply cannot occur.
This term refers to the mental attitude of the person who directly committed the crime, to the socially dangerous act committed by him, regardless of its form (intent or inaction).
The concept of principles in criminal law
To consider the principle of guilt in the Criminal Code, you first need to find out what science means by this concept. As you might guess, this is a certain beginning of the theory, its base, which embodies the doctrine and its essence. In any legal science, one can easily find its basic principles, according to which the spirit and letter of the existing law are determined.
In criminal law, its principles are also of incredibly great importance, since it is believed that only if they are respected can the goals be achieved. Despite the importance of the principles, they were enshrined in law relatively recently - their first appearance in legislative acts dates back to 1991, and then they passed into the Criminal Code adopted in 1996.
Types of principles
Currently, the Criminal Code formally enshrines 5 principles of criminal law, which must be strictly followed. These include:
- The principle of legality.
- The principle of equality of citizens before the law.
- The principle of humanism.
- The principle of justice.
Of course, we should not forget about the main topic of this article - the principle of guilt. We repeat, it is enshrined in article 5 of the Criminal Code.
general characteristics
For the first time, the development of the principle of guilt in criminal law began to be carried out only at the end of the 18th century. She began to gain a foothold in the laws of civilized countries much later and implied the personal nature of criminal responsibility and subjective imputation. At the moment, the law expressly states that a person cannot be held liable in cases where there was an unconscious infliction of harm.
The consolidation of this principle in the legislation of the Russian Federation came from international law, since the principle of guilty responsibility was enshrined in one of the most famous documents - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in 1948. In addition, it was also enshrined in a number of other important international covenants and conventions.
The principle of guilt in the Constitution
One of the most famous doctrines used in the courts of Russia is the presumption of innocence. In simple terms, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court in the manner established by law. The presumption of innocence is officially enshrined in article 49 of the country's most important law - the Constitution. In many ways, this provision directly affects the guilt principle enshrined in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
History reference
To understand how the principle in question is working now, one should go a little deeper into history. In Russia, the path to becoming a guilty principle was very long and contradictory, which has led to so many views on it at the present time.
Until the beginning of the 18th century, religious theory reigned in the Russian Empire, according to which guilt was considered more a theological concept of sin, its individualization. This markedly influenced the criminal law of that era. It was only in the 18th century in Italy that Beccaria was the first to try to prove guilt, saying that harm is the only sign by which a crime can be defined. Later, the famous philosophers Kant and Hegel tried to justify his theory, who began to consider guilt itself from the standpoint of “free will”. It was Hegel's point of view that was once chosen by the founder of Russian criminalistics Baryshev. It has long been consolidated in the criminal law of the country, although the concept of guilt in the global history of criminal law has continued to develop actively.
Soviet period
Such a system was destroyed only after the October Revolution, when in Soviet criminal law many of the teachings that were used during the empire simply turned out to be unclaimed. A new interest in the topic of guilt began to develop only in the post-war period, when the principles of guilty liability were enshrined in the Criminal Code of the RSFSR, adopted in 1960, and formulas of the concepts of intent and negligence were given. After that, gradually, legal scholars began to develop this theory and concretize it. The main ideas that were developed at that time were reflected in the current Criminal Code.
Content
Now we will directly proceed to consider the content of the principle of guilt in criminal law. According to the Constitution of the country, criminal liability can only come when there is the fault of the person who committed the crime. In addition, according to the presumption of innocence, a person was initially presumed innocent until a guilty verdict proved his guilt. Based on this, it is easy to understand that one of the mandatory signs of a crime, its psychological component is guilt.
Article 5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation expressly states that the principle of guilt as a principle of criminal law means that a person can be prosecuted only in cases when his actions or inaction led to dangerous consequences for which he was proved guilty. This wording separated criminal law from morality and religion, which forbid even to think about committing offenses, forcing to punish only in those cases when actions were committed.
Chapter 5 of the Criminal Code
If in the 5th article of the Code only the definition of the principle of guilt was given, then the guilt itself is described in more detail in the 5th chapter of this law, namely:
- In article 24, where its forms are considered.
- Articles 25 and 26 addressing cases where a crime has been committed intentionally or through negligence.
- In article 27, which describes the responsibility for committing an unlawful act with two forms of guilt.
- Article 28 on innocent harm.
It is worth noting that there is not a single fixed term “guilt” or “guilty” in the Criminal Code, which often leads to confusion during the consideration of the case, since there is no unequivocal understanding. And the very concept of the principle is also explained rather vaguely, which led to the fact that the principles of guilt and subjective imputation are often confused with each other.
Subjective side
As mentioned earlier, guilt is an indispensable feature of the subjective side of the crime (as well as purpose and motive). Thus, despite how terrible the consequences are, a person cannot be prosecuted for them unless his guilt is proved. Therefore, any criminally punishable socially dangerous act only then leads to condemnation when the person guilty committed it. Any objective imputation for him is absolutely excluded. One example of the principle of guilt in action is the abolition of a guilty verdict and the termination of its proceedings in those cases where it was proved that the person was not guilty of its commission.
Based on all this, it can be assumed that for the commission of a crime, a person needs free choice in the commission of a given socially dangerous act. Therefore, incapacitated persons or children who have not reached the age of criminal responsibility cannot be punished, because they cannot realize and adequately evaluate their actions. If it is proved that the person was not guilty of the act, then his behavior is not even recognized as socially dangerous, but only objectively harmful, since there was simply no conscious choice in the antisocial form of behavior. In general, for the operation of this principle it is required that a person has a negative attitude to the values existing in society, and has a desire to violate the foundations.
Conclusion
In any legal science, basic principles are fundamental ideas on which law enforcement practice is based. The principle of guilt in its essence does not differ from them, since it takes into account the socio-political and legal patterns that have occurred in the country for centuries. Although it was consolidated relatively recently, it is considered one of the most important, as it is recognized that only in case of guilt can a person be punished for his illegal actions. Unfortunately, scientists still can not come to a consensus on this issue, because there is a huge number of diverse opinions about its interpretation.
But be sure to understand that criminal responsibility for the act is impossible on a person who did not foresee or could not foresee that his actions could lead to dangerous consequences for society or a particular living being.