Introduction
1. Criminal law: definition, subjects, objectives and classification
1.1 Signs of crime in criminal law
1.2 Subjects of criminal law
1.3 Crime and other offenses
2. Criminal law legal status of a subject
3. Relation of criminal law and other branches of law
Conclusion
Bibliography
Glossary
Аннотация
Introduction
Laws are bodies of rules for human conduct. They are meant to guide human actions, indicating those that are permitted or accepted and those that are prohibited, which performance attracts one form of punishment or the other. Laws are supposed to guide the behavior of citizens of a nation. A nation without laws is like a vehicle without wheels.
Without laws people cannot live peacefully together as there will be the problem of reconciling conflicting human rights. As Thomas Hobbes pointed out in his theory of the state, when man was alone, there was no need for laws. The need for laws was necessitated by the increase in human population, to help reconcile naturally conflicting rights of different individuals. It is therefore expected that citizens should obey laws, to avoid an anarchical state where jungle justice (the principle of survival of the fittest) operates.
The concept of crime is one of the main categories of criminal law. For the implementation of the tasks facing the criminal law to protect the individual, human and civil rights and freedoms, property, public order and safety, the environment, the constitutional order, the peace and security of mankind from criminal encroachment, as well as crime prevention.
A crime is always an act (action or inaction). Such a formulation of the law emphasizes that a crime is always a behavior, an activity of a specific person.
Illegal human behavior can be expressed both in an active activity and in the inaction of a person in cases where the law imposed on him the obligation to act. Inaction in this case also represents a certain act. The concept of action in the Criminal Code covers both socially dangerous action (inaction) and its harmful consequences.
Both lawful and unlawful behavior of a person begins with mental activity, which itself (thoughts, conclusions of a person) cannot be criminal if it is not accompanied by direct activity, by actions of a person. Intentions, goals for the sake of which a person does not take action, do not belong to the field of criminal law regulation, since they do not create the danger of causing harmful consequences.
Such a situation is now generally accepted in the science of criminal law. However, this was not always the case. For example, in ancient German law there was no distinction between the theft of the conceived and the perfect: “If you did not commit the theft you conceived just for the sake of fear, then you did make it with your thoughts.”
Criminal law protects all major areas vital activities of people and their associations from criminal infringements, regulates their behavior, prevents the commission of new crime, and brings in the spirit of honesty and respect for the law.
It is the criminal law that protects the most significant manifestations of human freedom.
1. Criminal law: definition, subjects, objectives and classification
As you begin your study of the law, you want to understand what a law is and its relationship to a legal system.
Law is one of those concepts that do not have just one or two definitions. Several scholars and philosophers of law have, throughout human history, given their various definitions for law. This question “What is law?” has attracted a myriad of answers throughout the history of man, ranging from the Old Testament’s assertion of law as the will of God to the contemporary times.
The question of the nature of law was first tackled in the 5 century B.C. by the Sophists and Socrates (Ibid). The debate as to whether law exists by nature or by human-made convention started as far back as then (Ibid). While the Sophists opined that the essence of law is nature and reason, Socrates as well as Plato and Aristotle favoured the view that the essence of law is convention and will (Ibid). Thinkers who belong to the former group are loosely said to be of the tradition of “Natural Law”, whereas those of the latter group belong to the tradition of “Legal positivism” [4].
The law affects your life every day in many aspects. For example, the next time you are stopped at a traffic light, look at the area around you. There might be video cameras at that stop light. Is this an invasion of your privacy? It is the law that regulates those cameras. Perhaps you have a cell phone with you right now. Did you know your movements can be tracked using your cell phone? How and when your cell phone can track your movements is also regulated by the law. Or, maybe you purchased something today from a vendor with a debit or credit card? The law regulates the electronic transfer of your funds to the vendor [5, p. 11].
The law is a part of everything you do from the day you are born. The law regulates what information goes on your birth certificate, when you are required to attend school, when you can drive a car, and when you can vote. On the other hand, it also gives you freedoms and rights that people in other countries may not have. Some of these include the right to criticize your government and the right to be presumed innocent if you are accused of a crime.
A law is a set of rules that guides the behavior of a society. It is something that must be obeyed. When those rules are broken, rule breakers are punished with penalties. On the other hand, a legal system is an organization of social and government control that creates and regulates order in a society through laws. It is this organization that regulates the system of rules and regulations designed to encourage good behavior and to deter negative conduct [5, p. 11].
Law refers to the body of binding rules and regulations governing the operations and governance of a society and the behavior of its people. At the current stage of human development, law is necessary for the maintenance of order in a society and for the demarcation of the rights and obligations of the people and their governments. The existence of a system of laws is also essential for the operation of the rule of law. A country’s laws usually comprise the constitution and other laws [6, p. 7].
2. Criminal law legal status of a subject
Democratic transformations taking place in states imply both the expansion of human rights and the establishment of guarantees for their implementation. The rights and obligations acquired by a person from birth and in the process of life activity determine his position in society, his social status. Some of these rights and obligations guaranteed by the socialist state constitute the legal status of the individual. The basis of the legal status of the individual in society constitution constitutes rights and duties. They play a leading role, being the core of the legal status of the individual. However, in relation to a particular person in the system of social opportunities, it is advisable to highlight such rights and obligations that most deeply express the essence of the relationship of the individual with society, and therefore require strengthening of guarantees in their implementation.
The category of legal status today plays a significant role in legal science. For a long time, individual scientists, in particular V. A. Palyutin, identified the concept of "legal status" with subjective rights. Modern scholars unanimously consider the legal status of an independent legal category, which reflects the legal status of a person in the state.
Today the definition of the concept of “legal status” in science is not unambiguous. The overwhelming majority of the definitions of this concept proposed in the literature are formulated by pointing out the structural elements of this category without taking into account the very essence of the phenomenon. “Legal status is a socially acceptable and necessary opportunity; the potential of a person is not just as an individual, but as a citizen of the state. The authority of the state guarantees them, by all its strength. Supporting this point of view, it is necessary to note the following. The category of legal status should be viewed through the prism of legal relations in which a person participates, because only during the execution of certain actions to realize the opportunities provided to him; a person realizes his status as a subject of legal relations. The empowerment of participants in legal relations with certain opportunities, thus, is one of the stages of the mechanism of legal regulation.
The above points of view regarding the range of subjects of criminal law, despite the presence of certain differences related primarily to different approaches to determining the beginning and end of the criminal law relationship, agree that the main subjects of criminal law are the victim, the guilty person and the state, represented by the competent authorities and officials.
The key law of the victim is the ability to demand from the authorized bodies of the preliminary investigation and the court the proper resolution of the criminal case and, thus, to restore his violated rights and legitimate interests to the maximum extent possible.
3. Relation of criminal law and other branches of law
Criminal law, by its nature, sphere, objectives is in close contact with other branches of law. At the same time, it differs from them in subject, method and tasks. The material criterion for this difference is the nature and degree of public danger of an act falling within the scope of the norms of a particular branch of law. With a minor risk of misconduct, the state considers it sufficient to take measures to restore the violated right. When the danger of encroachment on protected public relations is so great that they cause or create the threat of causing substantial harm to a person, his rights and freedoms, and other protected public interests, the state applies criminal penalties.
Administrative law provides for the use of coercive measures in committing an administrative offense. These measures also have a preventive nature. However, they differ from criminal law coercive measures in that they are applied for violations that are less dangerous to society. They also differ in the legal consequences of their use. In contrast to administrative measures, criminal punishment generates a criminal record.
Closest to the criminal law is adjacent to the penal law, which is a set of rules governing the relations arising in the process of execution of punishment.
Conclusion
Law is a set of rules that guides the behavior of a society. People must obey law. When a person violates the law, rule breakers are punished with penalties.
Like any other branch of law, criminal law is a system of norms. All norms in it are divided into groups located in a strictly defined order in accordance with their holding, character and solvable problems. Among them are the norm which enshrines the principles and general provisions of criminal law, and the rules which actually establish the crime and punishability of specific deeds.
In this work was considered the concept and signs of a crime.
It is an offense to commit a socially dangerous act that is guilty and is forbidden under the threat of punishment. Obligatory signs of a crime are public danger, unlawfulness, guilt, criminal punishability. A criminal act, in whatever form it may be expressed, is always associated with direct harm or the possibility of causing such harm to individual interests or public goods.
The consequence of the commission of a crime is the use of the most severe measure of state coercion - criminal punishment with subsequent conviction. Other offenses are accompanied by less stringent measures and convictions do not entail. Therefore, crimes are at the highest level of the hierarchy of offenses, based on the degree of danger to society.
Depending on the nature and degree of public danger, crimes are subdivided into crimes that do not represent a great public danger, less serious, serious and especially serious.
Law as a separate branch of law has all the main features inherent in the law as a whole. First of all, this is expressed in the fact that criminal law is a system of norms established by the state. These rules determine the most dangerous for the existing system of action, as well as the conditions for the appointment of penalties for their perpetration.
Glossary
A
1. Abuse - Злоупотребление
2. Accepted rule - Принятое правило
3. Accusation - Обвинение
4. Achieved level - Достигнутый уровень
5. Act - Действовать
6. Action - Деяние
7. Administrative law - Административный закон
8. Adopted in society - Принятый в обществе
9. Affect - Влиять
10. Allow - Позволять
11. Analyze - Анализировать
12. Application - Применение
13. Approved by - Одобрен кет-то (чем-то)
14. Area - Область
15. Arise - Возникать
16. Arson - Поджог
17. Aspect - Аспект
18. Assault - Нападение
19. Assertion - Утверждение
20. Assessment - Экспертиза
B
21. Ban - Запрещать
22. Basis - Основание
23. Battery - Побои
24. Behavior - Поведение
25. Belief system - Система убеждений
26. Bigamy
27. Break - Нарушать
28. Bribery - Взяточничество
29. Build on - Двоеженство
30. Building-code violation - Нарушение строительного кодекса
31. Burglary
C
32. Case - Дело
33. Cause - Вызывать
34. Charge against - Обвинение против
35. Circle - Круг
36. Circumstances - Обстоятельства
Аннотация
Понятие преступления является одной из ключевых категорий уголовного права. Для осуществления стоящих перед уголовным законодательством задач охраны защищаемых уголовным правом интересов необходимо точное определение понятия преступления.
Действительно, без него невозможно представить существование всей науки уголовного права, так как с помощью него дается ответ на то, какие деяния являются незаконными, какие условия должны быть, чтобы признать деяние преступлением, а лицо, совершившее это деяние – преступником, какие преступные действия более опасные для общества, какие менее.
Что же касается содержательного аспекта данного понятия, то есть, какие именно виды социально отклоняющегося поведения закреплялись в существующем законодательстве как преступления, то здесь решающее значение имели интересы политически и экономически господствующего класса (сословия, части общества). Под защиту закона и, следовательно, государства ставились те общественные отношения, которые являлись наиболее значимыми и определяющими, во-первых, для данной части общества, а во-вторых, для всего общества в целом.
Уголовное право – это совокупность норм о преступлении и уголовной ответственности за его совершение (наказании). Право, однако, это нечто большее, чем простая совокупность норм. Это воля, желание общества определенным образом регулировать отношения между людьми, это сумма всех интересов отдельных людей, их групп.
Соответственно, предметом уголовного права являются общественные отношения по поводу того, что признавать преступлением и какие меры ответственности устанавливать за их совершение.
