A Theoretical Model of the Special Part of the New Penal Code of the Russian Federation: Structure and Content

The article presents a theoretical model of the Special Part of the draft of the new Penal Code of the Russian Federation. This draft is based on new approaches to the construction of the system of penal law. The study aims at developing a framework of the structure and content of the theoretical model of the draft of the Special Part of the Penal Code, which will help eliminate the shortcomings in the current penal laws and take into account the conceptual provisions of the institutions of penal law. The objectives of the study are: (1) to understand gaps, shortcomings, and inconsistencies in the current penal laws; (2) to study the views of leading researchers in the field of penal law on the status of the current penal laws; (3) to make proposals for the development of sections and chapters of the Special Part of the new Penal Code of the Russian Federation. During the research, general and specific methods of scientific cognition were used: dialectical, formal-logical, functional, system-structural, comparative-legal, as well as the method of legal modeling. Taking into account the processes of differentiation and specialization occurring in penal law, the author identified sections within the Special Part of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation using the following criteria: (1) types of criminal penalties related and not related to isolation from society; (2) types of other measures of a criminal legal nature, which are forms of implementation of criminal responsibility; (3) specific features of penal legal personality of convicts; (4) exemption from serving a sentence. To highlight the chapters in the framework of the Special Part of the draft Code, the author used additional criteria: (1) the form of criminal liability exercising: criminal penalties and other measures of a criminal legal nature; (2) the specific use of measures of corrective and preventive actions in relation to convicts; (3) issues of vital activity of convicts while serving criminal sentences involving isolation from society. The study substantiates the feasibility of introducing a new section "Execution of Other Measures of a Criminal Legal Nature". In addition, a new section should be introduced on the peculiarities of the execution of criminal penalties in the form of deprivation of liberty in relation to certain specific categories of convicts: foreign citizens and stateless persons, persons serving imprisonment for economic and (or) official crimes, convicts serving sentences for terrorist and extremist crimes. Quantitatively, the Special Part of the draft of the new Penal Code of the Russian Federation has increased in comparison with the current Special Part due to the introduction of new sections and chapters. Among the novelties of the Penal Code, there are proposals on redistribution and clarification of regulations governing penitentiary, alternative penitentiary, alternative penal legal relations, on clarification of the penal legal personality in relation to various specific categories of convicts, on rethinking of the inter-sectoral institution of exemption from punishment.

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