Savuk Leonid - Professor,  Department of Criminal Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Juridical Sciences. Address: 20 Myasnitskaya Str., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: lk.savyk@gmail.com.

The article provides a retrospective view to the codification of the Russian criminal legislation to show what has been done in this area and what problems wait for the analysis. The article outlines three aspects: problem, matter, experience of codifying Russian criminal legislation. The topicality of the research is conditioned with the necessity to develop optimal viable theoretical model for a criminal legislation meeting the requirements of society and state in protecting socially significant values. Irrespective of the final output, the aim its codification is to ensure new, harmonized regulation of legal relations. A serious hindrance to solve this task is the lack of a legal conception (doctrine) of criminal policy. To develop it, modern criminal law should contribute as it needs a serious modernization relevant to the current needs of the country. Having analyzed the criminal code legislation, a close attention was paid to the requirement not admitting the coexistence of the law and various sources of criminal law norms including case precedent. Judicial law making violates the separation of powers principle and these decisions should not be part of Russian criminal legislation. The retrospective look at codifying criminal legislation supports the idea of its specific nature as to historical development and establishing state institutions and on the other hand, mechanical copying of the forms having developed in another environment, bringing to Russia foreign social theories, which were doomed. We have our own social ills which cannot be treated with foreign medicines. However, the foreign experience especially German as to codifying criminal legislation was attentively studied in Russia. The author shows an initial vector in the development of the Russian criminal legislation and is confident that rich history of national codification will bring positive results.