The object of the research in the article is the set of key decisions of the Supreme Courtof Russian Federation on the issues of crime qualification committed together with a personnot subject to criminal liability, as well as an inappropriate special subject. The authorjustifies the possibility and indicates the limits of the application of the methodologyof discourse analysis in the field of criminal law enforcement. Using the archaeologicalmethod of M. Foucault, an attempt is made to reveal the influence of the social and politicalcontext on the essence, the order of argumentation and the form of legal positions determinedby the highest court instance. The article puts forward and maintains the opinionthat the recognition of a public danger discourse that dominates the Russian criminal lawdoctrine has a significant impact on the recognition of the possibility of qualifying a crimecommitted together with an “useless” subject. The absence of detailed argumentationin decisions of the Supreme Court considering the commission of a crime together witha person not subject to criminal responsibility as a group of persons is associated with adoctrinal position about the possibility and acceptability of such qualification based onstrong rhetoric of danger and justice. Significant differentiation of the approaches of theSupreme Court in assessing the possibility of recognizing various categories of specialsubjects as appropriate (officials, military personnel, persons performing alternative civilianservice, convicted persons) who have violated the basis or did not follow the procedurefor establishing special relations with the state regarding service or serving a sentence,is explained with use of M. Foucault disciplinary society concept. The distinctionestablished in their decisions of the rules of criminal responsibility of officials who arerecognized as subjects, servicemen with respect to which they have a specific practiceof not recognizing them as special subjects, and persons performing alternative civilianservice who are not recognized as subjects is bound by In this sense, with the positionin the system of power that they occupy (subjects of power or objects of application ofdisciplinary practices).
For citation: Razogreeva A.M. (2020) Legal Positions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on Crime Qualification with a “Irrelevant” Subject: A Discourse Analysis. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 1, pp. 211–229 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17323/2072-8166.2020.1.211.229