Certain Questions in the Further Development of the Theory of Criminal Law

Abstract

The achievements of Soviet criminal lawyers in elaborating the basic concepts of criminal law (crime, corpus delicti, complicity, stages of a crime, punishment, special and general prevention, etc.), in establishing boundaries between the norms of criminal law and those of morality, between legal and moral responsibility, between criminal law and other branches of law, etc., are doubtless of interest for the development of the theory of criminal law under the conditions of the state of the entire people. These achievements have promoted the strengthening of legality and constitute a solid basis for further improvement of the norms of criminal law. At the same time, certain concepts and institutions of criminal law that have taken root in theory and practice require critical re-examination as a consequence of various circumstances and, primarily, of certain historical events such as the 20th and 22nd congresses of the CPSU and the adoption of the new CPSU Program. The latter attaches particular significance to ideological work, the education of the new man, overcoming the vestiges of capitalism in human consciousness and behavior, and also poses the objective, new to world history, of uprooting crime within a definite and comparatively brief period of time.