RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE INTERESTS OF THE PERSON AND THE STATE IN THE CRIMINAL LAW OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The author raises the problem of relationships between the interests of the person and public authorities, which has long occupied the minds of philosophers, sociologists, political scientists and lawyers, and which has an enormous criminological significance as it defines critically important directions of legislative, law enforcement and organizational-preventive activities. The author questions the legitimacy of characterizing this relationship as a balance, parity, or equality even in relation to the states who have constitutionally proclaimed themselves to be law-based states, because the monopoly of any state on the use of coercive force deliberately excludes a parity of interests. Evidently, it is only possible (somewhat conditionally) to discuss a harmony between the interests of the person and the state in relation to constitutional law. For other branches of law, the relationship between the interests of the person and the state should be characterized differently. Criminal law, repressive by its nature, cannot and should not treat a person who has committed a crime as a partner: it always holds this person accountable and, by a general rule, punishes him for the crime. This does not, however, at all mean that the interests of a person who has committed a crime are totally ignored. The key interest of this person consists in getting a minimal penalty for the committed actions. This interest is recognized by the state in different ways and to a different scope. The norms of criminal legislation of the Russian Federation, in which the interests of the state and the interests of the person who has committed a crime converge to some degree, could be divided into five groups: 1) norms-goals and norms-principles, where the interests of the state and the interests of the person who has committed a crime actually coincide; 2) norms-permissions; 3) norms-incentives; 4) norms-compromises; 5) norms-allowances. The author analyzes and assesses each of these criminal law norms.