Justice in Criminal Law: Current Status of the Issue

Abstract

The article is devoted to the category of justice in modern criminal law. The philosophicalconcept of justice, the development of the consolidation of the concept of justicein criminal law, the correlation of justice, social justice and the principle of justice areanalyzed. A particular attention is paid to achieving justice in the design of penalties forcriminal law. It is concluded that justice is a hierarchically ordered system of interconnectedmoral values, which implies a combination of higher moral categories in which freedom,limited by equality, embodies good in accordance with an objective order. The restorationof justice as a goal of criminal punishment is a condition approved from the standpoint ofmorality that arose as a result of a committed criminal assault of public relations, takingplace in connection with the implementation of the punishment corresponding to thenature and degree of public danger of the crime, the circumstances of its commission and the identity of the perpetrator, and compensation for the damage caused. The categories“justice” and “principle of justice” are not identical. The moral category of good is acommon feature, the distinction is made according to the degree of prevalence of thecategories in question in social relations. The category of “justice” is a kind of foundationfor the formation of the principle of justice. The principle of justice is expressed both inthe doctrine of criminal law and in existing criminal law and practice. Its legal contentis disclosed in the aggregate of the following requirements: justice of criminalization ofacts, justice of criminal prosecution, justice of differentiation of responsibility, justice ofthe appointment and implementation of punishment and other measures of a criminal lawnature. In modern conditions, the establishment in the law of criteria for the imposition offair punishment acts as a kind of guarantee for the observance of the rights of perpetratorsand victims. The legislator provides for three such criteria: the correspondence of thepunishment imposed to the nature and degree of public danger of the committed criminalassault; compliance of the punishment with the circumstances of the commission of thecriminal offense and compliance of the punishment with the identity of the perpetrator.The principle of justice in the text of the criminal law is not fully disclosed by the legislator,since its legislative structure is aimed only at protecting the rights of a person who hascommitted a criminal offense, but who has not suffered from a crime.
For citation: Mamedova F.F. (2020) Justice in Criminal Law: Current Status of the Issue. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 1, pp. 148–168 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17323/2072-8166.2020.1.148.168