Significantly about the Insignificant: Practice of Applying Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (General Description of the Problem)
Significantly about the Insignificant: Practice of Applying Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (General Description of the Problem)
Introduction: it is known that “significant” and “insignificant” are paired categories, because
revealing the essence of the one is unthinkable without referring to the analysis of the other. This
article (the first in a series) reveals the social and legal nature of the institution of insignificance in
criminal law. Purpose: to clarify the legal nature and essence of the institution of insignificance in
criminal law and analyze the practice of applying Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the
Russian Federation and develop scientific and practical recommendations for law enforcement
officers. Methods: historical, comparative legal, sociological and psychological, statistical methods,
methods of dialectical cognition, abstraction, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction.
Results: first, it is stated that the category “insignificance of a criminal act” has not been properly
developed in Russian criminal law science. Second, it is revealed that the intensification of the
practice of applying Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is associated
with the emergence and further with the deepening of the gap in the norms of substantive law
regulating the incurrence of liability for petty theft (Article 7.27 of the Administrative Code of the
Russian Federation) and various forms of theft provided for in Chapter 21 of the Criminal Code of
the Russian Federation “Crimes against property”. Third, it is stated that law enforcement officers
(employees of bodies engaged in operational investigative activities, interrogators, investigators,
prosecutors and judges) cannot comprehend the essence of another paired philosophical and legal
category – “form” and “comprehension” (crisis of legal psychology and ideology). All the noted
problems do not contribute both to the economy of criminal repression and criminal procedural
economy in general. Fourth, there is a growing number of legal experts arguing that the problem of
the insignificance of an act should be brought up for discussion by the Plenum of the Supreme Court
of the Russian Federation. In subsequent articles in the series “Significantly about the Insignificant:
Practice of Applying Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation”, the reader
will be offered a substantive analysis of the rational and irrational in classifying certain actions as
criminally punishable acts and results of the author’s monitoring of the practice of applying Part 2 of
Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Keywords: insignificance of an act (Part 2 of Article 14 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); paired categories; criminal law; fundamental principle of law; freedom of judicial choice; public danger; punitive law; offense; offense provided for by the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation; criminal misconduct; virtual (alleged) benefit of punishment; real social harm of punishment; judicial practice; unity of judicial practice.
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