Insulting a Public Authority: Issues of Legal Regulation, Qualification and Differentiation of Criminal Liability
Sereda S.P. Insulting a Public Authority: Issues of Legal Regulation, Qualification and Differentiation of Criminal Liability. Penitentiary Science, 2026, vol. 20, no. 1 (73), pp. 54–61. doi 10.46741/2686-9764.2026.73.1.007.
the article analyzes provisions of Article 319 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation stipulating criminal liability for insulting a public authority, as well as the practice of their application, the role and significance of these norms in ensuring the constitutional right to protect the honor and dignity of the individual, the established management procedure, and state security. Purpose: based on the analysis of problems of legislative consolidation and definition of the crime elements provided for in Article 319 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the practice of applying this article to develop proposals for improving the provisions of criminal legislation in this area. Methods: methods of dialectical cognition, induction, deduction, analysis, synthesis, interpretation of legal norms, legal-dogmatic, structural-logical, systematic methods, etc. Results: the author determines gaps and shortcomings in the description of elements of the crime related to insulting a public authority that lead to their different understanding and application both in the scientific community and judicial practice. Incomplete application of provisions of Article 319 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in practice is noted due to the inaccurate identification of crime elements, primarily public insult, a lack of differentiation of liability for insulting a public authority. The absence of proportionate and systemic links between this article and other related and similar types of crimes and administrative offenses is revealed. Conclusions: based on the study results, the author proposes a new version of Article 319 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation containing a detailed description of elements of the crime under consideration and differentiating criminal liability for insulting a representative of power, depending on whether the crime has been committed in public or using official conduct, as well as clarified and supplemented sanctions.
Keywords: insult; representative of authority; publicity; corpus delicti; punishment; differentiation of criminal responsibility.
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