Zhuk, M.S. Formation and development of the institutions of the Russian criminal law

Abstract: The article is devoted to the studies of the processes of formation and transformation of the institutions of criminal law in the Russian legislation in X–XXI centuries, as well as to the analysis of the development of scientific thought on its nature and systematization. The author evaluates the factors, which influenced various stages of this process, he evaluates to the first codified normative acts of the Ancient Russia. As a result of this attempt to define the key stages of evolution of the institutions of the Russian criminal law, the author comes to a conclusion that there are two key periods, which are different in their length, but similar in their characteristics, the first being from the X century to the early XX century, the second being from 1917 to the current period. Due to the logic of legal development the first historically formed institutions of criminal law are the institutions on specific crimes, which is due to the urgent need for the list of prohibited acts and the list of punishments for their commission. The general institutions of criminal law appear later, when the science manages to achieve certain theoretical abstractions, some ideal provisions on crime and punishment. The article includes analysis of the works of the renowned Russian legal scholars throughout the period in question, which laid the grounds for the higher quality codification of legal materials. The author comes to a conclusion that the Russian legislation up to the middle of XX century did not know the period when all of the criminal law institutions were included into one codified act. However the centuries of experience of codification of legislation served as the basis for the development of scientific thought at the current stage.

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