General system characteristic of the penal law in terms of its principles

The article establishes the principles of penal law as the framework relations in this branch. It provides a brief description of the system of penal law, in particular, its properties, elements and relations that are necessary for specifying its principles. The problem of the list and content of legal principles, including those in the penitentiary law, is one of the most topical and controversial in the legal science. The popular interpretation of legal principles as "guiding ideas", "first principles", "basic requirements" and similar categories is unproductive: their ambiguous content and amorphous boundaries gives rise to discussions on their meanings. The author proposes a different approach to the identification of the penal law principles. This approach is based on a systemic understanding of the category "principle" as framework relations, the establishment of which between the elements of the "thing" implies its appearance. This approach to defining the penal law principles requires prior thorough systemic characterization of the penal law itself, which will be a prerequisite for the subsequent identification of these relations. In this regard, the article describes the properties, elements and framework relations of the penal law, with its properties specified on the on the basis of the Russian law that limits its scope. The primary elements of the penal law include penal (normative) requirements that constitute the norms of the penal law. The analysis of the relevant relations that arise among these elements leads the author to the conclusion that the framework character allowing the elements to be identified as principles can be found in the following relations: combination of requirements according to the identity of their properties, focus on regulation of penal relations, mutual provision and sequence. A brief description of the above-stated principles shows that they refer only to "technical" aspects of the interaction of the elements in this branch (generally typical for other branches). However, they do not reveal the essential features specific to the requirements of the group. This raises the problem of establishing the principles of other legal categories, in particular those of penal regulation that will possibly allow seeing the essential features of the establishment and implementation of penal provisions.

Keywords

Authors

References