Russian legal thought of the first half of the 19th century about the subject of criminal law

Russian criminal legislation, as we know, gained intensive development in the first half of the 19th century (in 1832 the Code of criminal laws was published; in 1845 the Regulations about criminal punishments and correctional ones was adopted). The Russian criminal law science started developing at the same time (then it was called the science of criminal laws or criminal jurisprudence). In the literature of those years it was noted that the achievements in legislation far outstripped the achievements of criminal jurisprudence in Russia; the enactment of the Collection and Code of laws put a cornerstone to the science of Russian jurisprudence, however, this did not create the science yet. Russian lawyers saw the mission of the criminal law science in comprehension of essence of criminal laws, the process of law making, value of criminal laws in the life of people during this or that era. The works of those years advanced the idea that the criminal law science should not be limited to the criminal law research of "regulations of positive laws"; it should study "those main beginnings which form the basis for criminal laws". It was noted that the science of criminal law should consider the concepts and institutions of criminal law as historical changeable categories. The conclusion was drawn that scientific knowledge of criminal law involves three aspects: a dogmatic, historical, and philosophical one. Eventually, by the end of the mid-19th century the Russian lawyers had a concept of the science of criminal jurisprudence as the science studying social and moral causality of criminal law bans, criminal laws of the state, their practical application, foreign criminal legislation, its application, foreign criminal law science. Lawyers of that time did not question the provision that the science of criminal law should consider criminal legislation as a dynamic system formation; explore the essence of crimes, explain the need and fairness of criminal punishments. At the same time the works covered the idea (in some works it was done in general, in others more or less extensively) that the science of criminal law could not be limited to the studying of legal constructions of certain concepts, studying of criminal action and punishment as abstract categories, distracted from realities; it should investigate them as the vital phenomena. While studying the practice of application of Russian criminal laws, foreign criminal legislation and the science of criminal law should facilitate the proper construction of criminal legislation of Russia. It is necessary to notice that the same ideas lie in the core of a modern view of the Russian criminal law science.

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