State as the subject of punitive law: review of theories

Any special literature concerning punishment as one of the central institutions of criminal law indicates that the first signof punishment is expressed in its determination as a measure of public enforcement. It is the state in the face of the court and the penalsystem is the subject of coercion. That is why punishment is appointed on behalf of the state by the court verdict. Otherwise, it is impossible,because the death penalty assigned, for example, under the sentence of a social organization, will be regarded not as a penalty, butas a murder. It is necessary to point that discussions on who has the right to punish the guilty - God or the temporal power  were heldfor more than a century. Many essays and treatises were written on this subject, a set of theories was developed that lost relevance atpresent because the state monopoly on punishment does not gives rise to doubts. It goes without saying, that we do not dispute this circumstance.The most logical argument in favour of this law is seen in the presence of the state duty to protect the society from violatingof conditions of its existence. Meanwhile, the so-called classical school of criminal law had theories, leading out the right of punishmentfrom physical or sensory properties of nature, from the contract, from self-defence, etc., i.e., scientists offered other arguments of theright of the state to punish persons guilty of committing crimes. Compromise or eclectic theories smoothed discrepancies and contradictionsexisting between them. We take the liberty to affirm that all these theories played a very important role in the formation and developmentof the Russian criminal legal science. The article presents an overview of theories that substantiate the state right to punitiveforce, which could not lose relevance both in theoretical and practical plans today, so that without knowledge of the great historical andlegal heritage the elite education would not become legal craftsmanship. For an obvious reason, it is impossible to enumerate all theviews on the mentioned topic, therefore, we selected the ideas of the most prominent representatives of groups of theories that justify thelegitimacy of the state right to punishment, which seemed most interesting to us.

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