Application Techniques for Legal Norms with Special Corpus Delicti: Current State and Improvement Pathways
Bachigina N.A. Application techniques for legal norms with special corpus delicti: current state and improvement pathways. Penitentiary Science, 2025, vol. 19, no. 4 (72), рр. 425–432. doi 10.46741/2686-9764.2025.72.4.010.
the special corpus delicti can be considered a terra incognita of modern criminal
law science. To date, there remains a substantial lack of research concerning its nature, types,
significance, and issues of legislative regulation. Another gap in the criminal law theory is the
methodology for applying norms with a special corpus delicti, which constitutes the focus of this
article. Purpose: to identify typical errors in the application of norms with a special corpus delicti
and to develop proposals for their minimization. Methods: analysis, synthesis, system-structural,
formal-legal, historical-legal, comparative-legal methods, along with theoretical methods of formal
and dialectical logic. Results: key qualification drawbacks committed when applying norms with
a special corpus delicti are identified; propositions regarding the correlation between features of
general and special corpus delicti are developed; and criminal law constructs of special corpus
delicti present in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are presented. Conclusions: despite
the legislatively established rule for applying special criminal law norms, the technique of applying
norms with a special corpus delicti has serious flaws. These stem from incorrect understanding of
their nature and essence, leading to over-qualification, incorrect determination of the relationship
between different corpora delicti, and the use of an erroneous qualification algorithm. The proposed
propositions regarding the correlation of features of general and special corpora delicti demonstrate
the distinctive characteristics of the special corpus delicti compared to the general one. This
facilitates its identification and the establishment of a correct type of relationship with the general
corpus delicti, thereby contributing to the reduction of drawbacks in the law enforcement technique
for norms with a special corpus delicti.
Keywords: corpus delicti; special corpus delicti; law enforcement technique; qualification; qualification errors; criminal law construct.
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