Moscow University Law Bulletin. 2025. 5.

The article is devoted to the history of the origin of the science of criminal law at Lomonosov Moscow State University and the emergence of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the Faculty of Law. The author restores data on the faculty teaching of criminal law and on the teaching staff of the Faculty of Law and the Department of Moral and Political Sciences. The article contains information about the scientific and pedagogical activities of professors Barsheva S. I., Goryushkina Z.A., Dilteya F.G., Desnitsky S.E., Malova M.Ya., Tsvetaeva L.A., Shteltsera Kh.Yu.L., their works are reviewed and their contribution to the development of domestic criminal law is revealed. According to the author, Professor Lev Alekseevich Tsvetaev, who considered many fundsmental theoretical problems of crime and punishment in his work "A brief Theory of Laws", should be considered the first Russian academic theorist of criminal law at Moscow University. The most prominent scientist of the criminal law science of the 19th century is also Professor Sergey Ivanovich Barshev, whose ideas have not lost their relevance at the present time (for example, the impossibility of criminal liability of corporations and analogies in criminal law, some recklessness crimes may be more important than intentional ones, etc.).

The article, taking into account the scientific views of scientists from Lomonosov Moscow State University, substantiates the importance of combating recidivism and provides detailed socio-demographic characteristics of convicts (based on the materials of the special census of convicts and persons in custody, December 2022) who committed crimes with particularly dangerous recidivism and are held in correctional colonies special treatment. Some features of the execution of imprisonment in these correctional institutions are shown. The following characteristics of convicts held in special-regime penal colonies are analyzed: citizenship, age, education, marital status, occupation at the time of arrest or conviction, ability to work and health status, attitude to religion. The socio-demographic characteristics of convicts serving sentences in special-regime penal colonies are characterized by the following: an older age compared to other categories of convicts; a high level of education; a low intensity of maintaining social ties with their families; a high proportion of individuals with no specific occupation before their conviction; a high degree of employability, with a low level of involvement in productive labor; an increased proportion of retired convicts; and an indifferent attitude towards adhering to the religious norms of the religious denominations to which they (the convicts) belong. The socio-demographic characteristics of convicts in dynamics are characterized by: a significant "aging of convicts" in special regime penal colonies; an increase in their educational level; a decrease in the degree of their ability to work, while a significant decrease in the level of their involvement in productive labor; an increase in the proportion of pensioner convicts; and a decrease in the proportion of atheist convicts.

The article is devoted to the issues of institutional development of penitentiary law as a sub-branch of penal enforcement law. The use of the "institutional development" indicator makes it possible to assess the current norms of penal enforcement law governing the execution of criminal penalties not related to isolation from society, as well as the level of development and quality of functioning legal institutions in this regulatory subsystem. Using system-forming criteria, the author defends the position of the existence of a separate, relatively isolated normative subsystem — penitentiary law, which has the status of a sub-branch of penal enforcement law. In the work, the author comes to the conclusion that penitentiary law in the system of penal enforcement law functions at the level of a well-formed sub-branch. The purpose of the study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the processes of differentiation and integration taking place in penal enforcement law, and to determine the status of the regulatory subsystem "penitentiary law". The objectives of the study are to define the concept of "penitentiary law" and its place in the system of penal enforcement law; to establish system-forming criteria that determine the specifics of penitentiary law; to analyze general, substantive and functional institutions within the framework of penitentiary law.

The article attempts to identify, using the work of Moscow State University professor N.F. Kuznetsova as an example, the causes of the emergence and resolution of discussions on controversial issues of criminal law regulation. The focus is on three concepts of criminal law: crime, corpus delicti and illegality; their interrelation and difference in functions when used in different areas of criminal law are shown. The purpose of one or another approach to defining these concepts is revealed, lawmaking and law enforcement errors caused by deviation from the nature of the corpus delicti and criminal illegality are shown, the purpose of the doctrine of criminal law to show the danger of arbitrary transformation of an offense into a crime in the process of criminalization of an act by arbitrary use of the structure of the corpus delicti, including with administrative prejudice.

The doctrine of the composition of a crime is a central element in the structure of Russian criminal law science, performing paradigmatic functions and linking together all issues of criminal law regulation — from the grounds for criminalizing acts to the legal technique of their description in law. This elevates the doctrine of composition to the category of components of the criminal-political doctrine. Although it is the political science component in this doctrine that remains the least developed. The focused attention to the criminal-political purpose of the corpus delicti is able to bring the teaching to a new level and contribute to its development in the interests of ensuring the security of the individual, society and the state.

The article deals with the key issues of comparative criminal law — the definition of it as an independent branch of scientific knowledge and an academic discipline, the designation of methodological problems in conducting research in the field of criminal law, its stages, criteria for the typology of criminal law families in the modern period. The article analyzes the main scientific approaches to substantiating the scientometric status of comparative criminal law and the process of its institutionalization, formulates the object and subject, and other theoretical foundations of comparative criminal law. Special attention is paid to the comparative method as the leading one in comparative law. Based on the paradigm of relativity, conditionality and multidimensionality of the scientific approach, the basic methodological rules of comparison and its stages are identified and justified, the observance of which allows us to formulate critically significant and reasonable conclusions as a result of comparative analysis. The article concludes that it is necessary to take into account the legal tradition as a relevant criterion for classifying criminal law systems as a set of views rooted in people's minds on the nature of law and political ideology, historical attitudes to the role of law in society, to the organization and functioning of the legal system as a whole.

The article shows the contribution of Professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the Law Faculty of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov Gennady Nikolaevich Borzenkov to the doctrine of liability for theft. The importance of his judgments on the signs of theft for criminal law science and law enforcement practice, including the positions of the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, is emphasized. In particular, in the development and refraction to modern problems of law enforcement, his point of view is considered regarding such objective features of the named crime as seizure and (or) conversion of someone else's property in favor of the guilty party or other persons, causing damage to the owner or other holder of this property, illegality, gratuitousness, and subjective features — direct intent and selfish purpose. The importance of his views on the solution of some private, but highly relevant problems of qualification of fraud is noted. All this made it possible to substantiate the conclusion that the contribution of Professor G.N. Borzenkov to the development of the doctrine of responsibility for crimes against property and, in particular, theft is very significant, and his deep and thoroughly reasoned judgments are comparable with the provisions of the works of the largest researchers of this problem.

Based on the well-known theories of the founders of victimology, it is proposed to consider a new approach to the classification and typology of modern crime victims. Particular attention is paid to minors who become victims of illegal encroachments. In addition, victims of telephone scammers and scammers using information telecommunication technologies are considered separately.

In today’s world, it’s crucial not only to focus criminological research on urban issues, but also to develop an independent field within criminology. The author proposes calling it criminological urbanology. This field could focus on the determination of crime in urban settings, as well as criminological prevention processes. The emergence of a broader field, legal urbanology, may serve as a basis for this conclusion. The historical premise for the emergence of criminological urbanology should be considered the comprehensive study of territorial differences in crime conducted in the Soviet Union and abroad. Prominent scholars from the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Moscow University — Professors M.N. Gernet, A.N. Trainin, A.A. Gertsenzon, and N.F. Kuznetsova — made significant scientific contributions to this field. The paper presents a brief overview of their scientific contributions to the study of urban crime, using Moscow as an example. The studies of Moscow crime in 1923 and 1968–69 played a particularly important role, addressing not only scientific but also educational objectives. The involvement of students from the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Law of Moscow University facilitated the students’ acquisition of independent research skills, a sense of the connection between research and practice, and a more detailed understanding of the subject. The mission of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Lomonosov Moscow State University is to continue the scientific tradition at the present stage.

The article addresses the problem of unlawfulness in relation to crimes provided for in criminal law provisions containing so-called blanket elements, as well as in provisions establishing liability for violations of special rules. The paper analyzes the main approaches developed in criminal law theory to the unlawfulness of such provisions — “protective” and “regulatory” approaches. Particular attention is paid to the problem of applying provisions with a “blanket” disposition in cases where blanket legislation (that is, non-criminal legislation positively regulating social relations) is used to give an expansive interpretation to a criminal law provision. In some cases, these results in the application of a criminal law provision to relations that are closely related to, but nevertheless not covered by, the specific criminal law provision, thereby amounting to analogy, which is expressly prohibited by law. It is suggested that where such regulatory rules consist of safety requirements common to various types of economic or other activity, the application of safety standards from one sphere to another does not in itself constitute analogy in criminal law. The article confirms the conclusion that where the legislator has expressly limited, in a regulatory rule, the possibility of its application to other types of relations, the authority applying the law may not apply it to such relations in the course of the legal classification of an offence. However, where regulatory law contains different rules, some allowing their application to the relations under consideration and others excluding it, the authority applying the law is not obliged, when legally classifying an offence, to choose the norm that prohibits such application.

The scientific works of the famous Russian lawyer Sergey Viktorovich Poznyshev in the sphere of criminal psychology are of great importance. He had identified endogenous and exogenous criminal personality types. The typology had based on the concept of the mental constitution of the person. Also, he had identified some various types of endogenous criminals. Predisposition to crime is an important characteristic of endogenous criminals. It is expressed in a person’s tendency to resort to a crime or a crime-like method (fraudulent, violent, abusive) to achieve their goal. The main target complexes were used as the basis for identifying such types of criminals as impulsive, emotional, rational, reasoners and ideological. Target complexes consist of the combination of predispositions to certain goals together with predispositions to certain ways of achieving its. The article demonstrates the more recent approaches of Soviet criminologists, and as well as modern works devoted to the study of the mental type of a person. The study of the criminal’s personality and the identification of mental personality types are of great importance for criminal sciences. The article discusses the significance of the typology of criminal types of criminals for criminal law as penalization and individualization of punishment; for criminology as of finding determinants of criminal behavior, forecasting and prevention, as well as penal enforcement law as correction and re-socialization of convicts.

This article is devoted to the scientific views of I.M. Tyazhkova, Professor of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology of the Law Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University, on the object and system of crimes against justice. The author comes to the conclusion that I.M. Tyazhkova's views on the content of the object of crimes against justice are based on the classical concept of the plenitude of judicial power developed within the framework of pre-revolutionary legal science. According to this concept, any procedural activity aimed at creating conditions for the consideration and resolution of a case on the merits by a court is covered by the concept of "legal proceedings", including in cases where this activity is carried out by officials who are not institutionally related to the judiciary. Due to this approach, it is necessary to include in the system of crimes against justice acts that infringe on the correct activities of the bodies of inquiry, preliminary investigation and the prosecutor's office, since these bodies, carrying out procedural activities within the framework of legal proceedings, create conditions for the administration of justice, therefore crimes directed against the interests of the relevant bodies, at the same time always infringe on the interests of justice. The concept of the plenitude of judicial power also helps to correctly distinguish between crimes against justice and crimes against the order of government.

The metaverse is an integration of advanced technologies such as cloud computing, big data, blockchain, and augmented reality (XR) to create interconnections between the physical and virtual worlds. This system provides the effect of a network application in the context of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and their extensions beyond traditional models. In recent years, the global metaverse industry has made significant progress thanks to the rapid development of digital twin technologies, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality (XR). This has not only transformed the network structure that developed in the Internet age, but has also created new challenges in the field of cybersecurity and legal regulation. Obscene behavior in the metaverse can cause serious psychological damage to users, which manifests itself in the real world. Therefore, it is necessary to develop appropriate mechanisms for the criminal protection of victims in this area. Special attention should be paid to the problem of indecent acts against minors in the space of the metaverse. Such crimes can take various forms, including “remote and virtual contact,” “virtual sexual exposure,” “obscenity with virtual violence,” and “perfecting deception skills.” In modern China, the criminal law regulation of these socially dangerous acts should be based on the principle of the most favored minors through appropriate judicial interpretation in accordance with the current Criminal Code of the People’s Republic of China.

The article is aimed at the scientific understanding of the legal nature of compulsory educational measures in the structure of special types of exemption of minors from criminal liability and punishment. Based on the analysis of the legal connection between the act of exemption from criminal liability, the act of exemption from punishment and compulsory educational measures, the shortcomings of the legal regulation of the application of these measures have been identified, as well as their heterogeneous legal nature. It is argued that exemption from criminal liability marks the end of criminal law relations and excludes the application of any criminal law measures to a person. However, a minor is subjected to compulsory educational measures after being exempted from criminal liability. Hence, it is concluded that this type of exemption is unconditional, and the educational measures prescribed in this case are conducted within non-criminal relations. Such an approach is not consistent with the provision of Part 4 of art. 90 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation that creates a misleading perception that the type of exemption in question is conditional. The recommendations aimed at eliminating the identified shortcomings and giving priority to special types of exemption of minors from criminal liability and punishment with the use of educational measures have been made. It is stated that compulsory educational measures imposed as an alternative to a punishment are criminal law in nature since they are used within one of the forms of realization of criminal liability. The necessity of differentiation of educational measures applied when releasing minors from criminal liability and when releasing them from punishment is substantiated.

The problem of legal technique in Russian legislation on political parties is a current direction in the constitutional and legal doctrine. One of the means of legal technique in party law is presumptions. They are based on the legal recognition of a certain fact without the need to establish it by law enforcement instruments. The ambiguous understanding of presumptions at the theoretical level predetermined the complexity of their perception among legal scholars specializing in party legal relations. Thus, they are mixed with related legal structures (legal values, principles and guarantees). This problem is complicated by the uneven development of the legal positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, as well as the imbalance in judicial practice, in which it is necessary to interpret party-legal collisions on the basis of a certain legal regime. Therefore, presumptions in the institution of political parties are usually divided into universal (constitutional-legal and civil-legal), special (administrative-legal) and specific (party-legal) according to the criterion of the relationship of norms in the branches of law. The main methodological technique was structural analysis, because it ensured the identification of normative elements in the current party legislation. The systemic method helped to correlate party-legal norms with norms from related legal institutions, which used similar legal techniques. As a result of the analysis of party legislation, similarities and differences between party-legal presumptions and presumptive elements ensuring the procedure for implementing the law were revealed.

This article is focused on the problem of technological and educational determinant in ensuring systematic legal regulation of informational (digital) technology use. The research is conducted through the prism of state legal regulation stage. In the framework of this work the approaches to technological development and its legal control are being analysed, special attention is paid to digital technological development. The social aspect of digital and technological development is characterised as a factor of its systemic legal regulation, considering the secondary nature of systemic law in regards to level approach to social systems. In this research the authors accentuate the role of educational determinant of implementation of informational technology's systemic legal regulation and functional purpose in training the professionals, who can organise and improve this legal regulation and work in the conditions of development of legal system in the context of informational (digital) technology integration. This article describes the logic of cognition of educational determinant of ensuring systemic legal control and the use of informational (digital) technologies, it also touches upon the state of professional educational institutions in particular the implementation of informational (digital) technologies legal supervision in the case of specific law universities.

The task of overcoming the imbalance that arose as a result of the violation by one participant of civil law relations of the subjective rights of another person is designed to solve the institute of compensation for damages, which has gone through many stages of development before its final formalization into the current legal structure, which in this article is proposed to analyze as the example of French legal doctrine. Civil law institutions do not always work like a shagreen skin and not all the participants in civil turnover can get the desired result when activating the procedure for compensation for damage caused by the actions of the violator, therefore, the discussion about choosing the optimal form of compensation for harm remains relevant today. This brief review, conducted through a comparison of the expediency of choosing between monetary compensation or fulfillment of an obligation to compensate for harm in kind, allows you to feel, very well not only the semantics of the institute of compensation for damages, but also to see the main trends in the development of the theory of civil liability in France. Due to the fact that the adoption by the legislator, judicial practice and later by the doctrine of the decision on the choice of performance in kind or pecuniary indemnity as a priority in compensation for harm is of a fluctuating nature and is associated with socio-economic circumstances in a specific historical period, and, therefore, cannot have the features of a long-term practice.

The article reviews the new edition of the textbook “Prosecutor’s Supervision”, prepared by the leading researcher in this field of law, Professor V.B. Yastrebov, Doctor of Law, and Candidate of Law V.V. Yastrebov. The article provides a positive assessment of the authors’ approach to presenting the course, which is based on both a qualitative historical analysis of the Russian Prosecutor’s Office and modern approaches to the theory of prosecutor’s supervision as a field of scientific knowledge. At a high doctrinal level, the authors cover the legal basis of the organization of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation, provide a definition and characteristics of its functions, and pay attention to the issues of further development of the Prosecutor’s Office, taking into account the concept proposed by them. Of particular interest is the actual rejection of the traditional approach to studying the activities of the Prosecutor’s Office through the lens of the branches of prosecutorial supervision. The authors offer a deep study of the concepts of “function” and “main area of activity” of the Prosecutor’s Office, which is of educational and scientific interest. It seems that the new edition of the textbook, which differs from previous editions in its more detailed and comprehensive coverage of the fundamentals of the organization and activities of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation, can provide a high-quality study of prosecutorial supervision as a multifaceted area of activity of this important state body, as well as the corresponding academic discipline, by students of the Law Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University and other law schools and faculties in our country.