Comparative Legal Analysis of General Provisions of Penal Codes of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation
Teplyashin P.V. Comparative legal analysis of general provisions of penal codes of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation. Penitentiary Science, 2025, vol. 19, no. 3 (71), pp. 285–292. doi 10.46741/2686-9764.2025.71.3.007.
the article shows a significant scientific interest in general provisions of penal codes of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, which contain fundamental and goal-setting legal guidelines that set the ideological and normative tone for the implementation of the entire complex of penal enforcement measures and means. Purpose: to determine similar and distinguishing features of general provisions of Belorussian penal legislation and, on this basis, to identify such regulatory guidelines that may be of interest for improving the domestic regulatory framework in the field of implementing criminal law measures. Methods: the research methodology mainly covers the analysis and synthesis of socio-legal phenomena, generalization and concretization, formal-logical and systemic-structural analysis of legal doctrine, hermeneutic study of legal norms, as well as the comparative method. Results: it is established that, according to their basic characteristics, penal codes of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation have almost complete structural identity. The first one outlines boundaries of the subject of legal regulation and the competence of state bodies in the penal enforcement sphere, as well as correlates penal legislation and international legal acts in more detail. However, Russian legislation, unlike the Belarusian one, provides for a norm on the operation of penal legislation of the Russian Federation in relation to convicted military personnel and a closed list of corrective measures. With minor differences, the tasks and principles of penal legislation, the grounds for the execution of punishments and other criminal law measures are almost identical. Conclusions: the Belarusian legislator emphasizes the importance of the normative structure of penal law, whereas the Russian one underlines its intended purpose. It is important for the Russian legislator to deeper “embed” legal guarantees of the legal status of convicts in general provisions of penal legislation, as well as to make other decisions to optimize its conceptual positions.
Keywords: Belarusian criminal policy; codified act; punishment; penitentiary legislation; coercive measures.
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