Doctrinal issues of criminal responsibility in Russian criminal law

Abstract

The paper is devoted to determining the moment of criminal responsibility and its content. The positions existing in science and practice are analyzed. The point of view on the occurrence of criminal responsibility at the moment when a person is being charged with a crime is substantiated. This opinion is supported by an analysis of Art. 299 and 305 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The relationship between the characteristics of the subjective side of the crime and the emergence of criminal responsibility is demonstrated. The content of criminal responsibility has been examined both in the criminal law and in the criminal procedure aspect. The emergence and termination of criminal responsibility, as well as its content, are examined, inter alia, through the prism of the grounds for relief from it provided for in Sec. 11 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Other measures of a criminal legal nature have been studied as constituting criminal responsibility. The issue of the possibility or impossibility of including them in the content of criminal responsibility has been resolved. The classification of the components forming the content of criminal responsibility is proposed. The definition of criminal responsibility is formulated, which, according to the author, should be enshrined in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.