The retroactive effect of the law in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation

The retroactivity of the law is a legal definition, which refers to the extension of the action of a state-sanctioned act to events that took place before its adoption. In other words, the concept indicates the legality of the occurrence of legal consequences of the generally binding norm in respect of circumstances at the time of occurrence of which there was another rule of conduct.

According to the generally accepted custom, the law does not have retroactive effect. This provision is a legal axiom. The Constitution of the Russian Federation 54 article excludes the responsibility of persons for an offense that was not so at the time it was committed. But the document indicates that in the event that the new law contains a softer punishment in comparison with the previous norm, the first is to be applied.

The provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation are reflected and specified in the Federal Law and normative acts of the lower levels. Thus, Article 54 of the Basic Law is duplicated and disclosed in Art. 10 of the Criminal Code. The legislator makes an important addition to the constitutional provision, which corresponds in the sense of the wording contained in the document having the highest legal force. But at the same time, the provision of the Criminal Code provides additional guarantees to citizens. So, according to the author's opinion, the inverse force of the law takes place not only if the new norm presupposes a softer punishment, but also if it somehow improves the position of the offender.

This seemingly insignificant addition in practice plays a very significant role for the guilty person. Given the general policy of mitigating criminal legislation, which began in a relatively recent past, and as a consequence, the introduction of changes in a number of articles of this code, it can be stated that the offender has a chance to receive a more indulgent guilty verdict.

It is noteworthy that the retroactive effect of the criminal law extends to those serving a sentence in accordance with the earlier more stringent norm. The criminal process started after the commission of an act whose decriminalization is sanctioned by the state ceases, regardless of the stage at which it is located.

In addition to cases of mitigation or elimination of punishment by the new law, the retroaction of the law takes place if there is an indication in the text of the legislative act. This provision is not enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, or even contradicts it (if we take into account the article according to which FKZ, FZ and other obligatory acts of government bodies should improve, but not worsen the situation of citizens). For this reason, the legitimacy of this rule can be questioned.

The document with the highest legal force was adopted at the national referendum, and it was assumed that the texts of subordinate laws must comply with it. But at the disposal of citizens there is no accessible, functioning and debugged legal instrument with the help of which they could express their opinion on the admissibility and correctness of generally binding provisions not related to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Thus, the rule that the inverse force of the law may be established by the text of a normative act is unconstitutional.