«Virtual» criminal and penal enforcement legislation

The essential drawback of the current Russian law-making process in the sphere of fight against criminality is the adoption of rules of the Criminal Code and the Correctional Code with a considerable delay or even with the uncertain term of their putting into effect. The author thinks that such a law making process is one of the manifestations of bureaucratization in state government and calls such laws "virtual". Although, "virtual" legislation creates an illusion that the problem is being solved, it produces a number of negative consequences. It erodes the standardization and authoritativeness in the system of legal regulation, procures the "devaluation" of law and loss of its authority in society. It also distorts the repressiveness of the system of criminal penalties. "Virtual" legislation provokes mass groundless expectations among those convicts who rely on the retroactivity of criminal law and undermines judicial practice and forces the judges to refer to the adopted but not put into effect norms. Such legislation often distracts scientists from actual scientific problems and distorts both the training process and texts in the corresponding educational books. It is necessary to revise the criminal and penal enforcement legislation and remove virtual norms from it. If there are no conditions, it is unreasonable to adopt such norms and case of their adoption the maximum term for their putting into effect should not exceed six months.

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