Practical implementation of legislation regulating criminal liability and punishment of juvenile delinquentsin the Russian Federation Supreme Court Plenum Ruling

The main provisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation PlenumRuling №1 On the judicial practice of implementation of legislation, regulating the characteristics of criminal liability and punishment ofjuvenile delinquents dated Feb. 01, 2011 (hereinafter referred to as the Ruling) are under examination in the present article. The main provisionsof the Ruling are compared with the previous provisions of the Supreme Court Plenum as well as with current criminal legislation.The authors point out those provisions of the Ruling which are inconsistent with the current criminal legislation and do not conform to internationallegal documents. Thus, nothing is said about the problem connected with the definition of the concept juvenile in the Ruling.According to Article 87 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code, Juveniles are individuals who by the time of committing a crime are ofor over the age of 14 and under 18. It is noted that this provision does not fully correspond to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child(Article 1), Article 11(a) of the UN Regulations, dealing with the defense of imprisoned juveniles. It is emphasized that the Ruling containsno information relating to the inconsistency of Part 3 of Article 20 with Article 22 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. This inconsistencyis connected with non-coordination of provisions of Article 22 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code. When expert decisions basedon Part 3, Article 20 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code are compared with possible findings based on Article 22 of the Russian FederationCriminal Code, some non-equivalence of the legal consequences of their application is obvious. It is necessary to eliminate the inconsistencyof Part 3 of Article 20 with Article 22 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code by changing Article 22 of the Russian FederationCriminal Code, where the possibility of non-bringing to trial those juveniles who do not understand the factual and public danger oftheir acts to a full extent should be provided. In the authors opinion the Ruling contains no indication concerning both general problems ofimposing the punishment on juvenile delinquents and the problems of administration of some types of punishment of juvenile delinquents(Article 89 and Article 96 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code) such as compulsory work and restraint of liberty. The Ruling does notcover the requirements of the current legislation to the priority of measures of treating juvenile delinquents. In Article 87 of the RussianFederation Criminal Code, the use of enforcement educational measures is of first priority compared with criminal punishment. As it was inthe previous Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Ruling № 7 dated February 14, 2000, the examination of the new Ruling enables usto make a conclusion that the given statute can be characterized only as a good intention despite the repeated mentioning of internationalstandards and reference to the obligatory consideration of the peculiarities of criminal liability of juveniles consolidated in the CriminalCode of the Russian Federation. Having analyzed the approach of the Supreme Court we can state that it is hardly possible to speak aboutthe changes concerning both the sense of justice of inferior courts and punitive practice (criminal punishment, suspended conviction) in thequestion of enforcing the norms of criminal liability and punishment of juveniles. The authors state that the clarifications given by the RussianFederation Supreme Court Plenum relating to the time of crimes completion, provided by Article 150 and Article 151 of the RussianFederation Criminal Code are inconsistent with the law. It stands to reason that in this case we should act in accordance with the law. Theanalysis allows the authors to stress the necessity of amending the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Plenum Ruling №1 dated February01, 2011.

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