Author

Epikhin A.Yu.

Title of article

Interdisciplinary problems of qualification of illegal compulsion of evidence (art. 302 of the criminal code of the Russian Federation)

Section

Law enforcement policy

Issue, year

4 (34) 2015

Abstract

Criminal liability for compulsion to testify belongs to crimes against the interests of justice. Proper qualification of this crime and application of criminal law rules requires its analysis and comparison (systematic interpretation) with some of the rules of criminal procedure code, as the articles of the RF Criminal Procedure Code contain the procedural status of participants in criminal proceedings in respect of which compulsion of evidence punishable by criminal law can be applied. However, certain articles of the RF Criminal Procedure Code have been changed and amended recently, that changes the traditional approaches to the definition of “participant in criminal proceedings”. For example, the amended Article 144 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code allows to conduct a wide range of investigative activities prior to criminal case initiation. Consequently, compulsion may be exerted on the individual participants before the beginning of the proceedings. Such comparison of the provisions of criminal substantive and procedural law allows to reveal the interrelation of criminal law and criminal procedural law rules and to establish the objective side of the crime and give a correct assessment of the act in a particular corpus delicti. It’s summarized that the qualification of crime under Article 302 of the RF Criminal Code requires the application of both criminal law and criminal procedural law rules. Otherwise it’s impossible to give an accurate criminal-legal assessment of the lawfulness of the investigative action aimed at obtaining evidence. The legislator should ensure the relevance and consistency of changes and amendments to the criminal substantive and procedural law.

Keywords

criminal case, qualification of a crime, corpus delicti, compulsion, testifying, participant in criminal proceedings, fight against crime.

References

1. Meshkov M.V., Gonchar V.V. Ugolovno-protsessual’naya deyatel’nost’ v stadii vozbuzhdeniya ugolovnogo dela: problemy pravovogo regulirovaniya [Criminal procedure activity in a stage of initiation of legal proceedings: problems of legal regulation]. Mirovoy sud’ya – Magistrate, 2015, no. 4, pp. 14-18.

2. Epikhin A.Yu. Osnovnye napravleniya ugolovnoy politiki Rossii na sovremennom etape [The main directions of criminal policy of Russia at the present stage]. Vestnik Udmurtskogo universiteta – Herald of the Udmurt university, 2012, no. 2-3, pp. 140-145.