Marina B. Kostrova

The article considers the basic theoretical provisions on the importance of the comparative legal method in scientific researches and in the practice of national criminal law-making. The article proves the admissibility and expediency of using the comparative legal method in the scientific substantiation of ways to improve the linguistic form of the Russian criminal law. It is specified that the possibilities of the comparative legal method in this area are limited, as each national law is written in the original national language, which has features of the lexical composition and grammatical structure, therefore, it is not the national systems of lexical and grammatical means themselves that are important for improving the linguistic form of the Russian criminal law, but rather positive experience with regard to general approaches to their use in the formulation of the content of criminal law prescriptions. Based on the analysis of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, a number of successful legislative decisions are identified in terms of giving precision and clarity to the language of criminal law, attention is focused on the pragmatic function of legislative definitions, revealing the meaning of terms used in criminal law and giving them strictly fixed normative content, which contributes to the formation of uniform law enforcement practice; and it is substantiated that the Kyrgyz experience in this area deserves the close attention of the Russian legislator.