Moscow University Law Bulletin. 2025. 6.

An analysis of recent scientific research indicates that authors have recently begun to neglect the language of forensic science, which has evolved over its existence as a field and a science. This trend negatively and significantly impacts the clarity of the presentation of forensic data obtained during research and undermines such an important element of the general theory of forensic science as its language, which, among other elements, is known to shape forensic science as a science. This tendency is particularly evident in the processes of formulating "new" definitions of forensic concepts and "refining" existing ones. Authors of these works neglect, or most likely are unaware of, the recommendations of classical theoretical sources addressing the methodology of conceptual development in science, which is detrimental to forensic science as a science. This important problem is outlined in this article

In forensic publications there are still controversial and not fully resolved issues related to the understanding of important essential problems of criminalistics, tactics, its essence, content and further development. The understanding of criminalistic tactics only as a system of recommendations on the most appropriate, rational methods of investigative actions and the process of investigation is controversial. Such an opinion does not correspond to the essence of criminalistics as a science based on the research of regularities of criminal activity. Tactical provisions have been developed, should be used and are actually used in practice, which are obligatory to follow them in the process of investigation. The rules include: the need at the very initial stage of the investigation to find out the alibi of the suspect/accused, to ensure a parallel verification of all versions, to inspect the scene of accident in cases of murder, rape, other violent crimes, theft necessarily in the absence of the suspect, accused even in cases of his confession. At the present stage, the traditional understanding of the leading question has changed. The concept of "conditionally leading question" is proposed — it is such a question, which together with the accompanying information may at first seem and be perceived as a leading question. To determine its essence, it is necessary to ask other related questions, analyze the available factual information, take into account the evidence that may be obtained later. The article sets forth other provisions. The following pattern is formulated: "sexual rapists, sexual maniacs, serial killers often have an irresistible urge to commit a subsequent or several subsequent crimes in the same place or near the place where one of the last or previous crimes was committed"

The article presents a theoretical and methodological model for establishing cause-and-effect relationships in the system of elements of the crime mechanism. The content of forensic causal analysis as an integral method of investigation is disclosed, encompassing the dialectical method of cognition and special forensic methods — the method of causal sequence, the hypothesis-based method, spatial-temporal analysis, as well as forensic modelling and experiment. The distinction between the concepts of "cause" and "condition" as applied to crime investigation is substantiated. Particular attention is paid to the reconstruction of causal chains on the basis of material traces, the analysis of the offender's actions in the unity of their internal and external aspects, and the methods for addressing situations of causal multiplicity. The significance of establishing cause-and-effect relationships for proving a person's involvement in the commission of a crime and restoring an objective picture of the event is demonstrated. The practical and theoretical importance of the proposed approach is substantiated, as well as the prospects for its development through the integration of modern technologies, including artificial intelligence.

The article analyses the formation, current state and future development of the fourth and final part of criminalistics, namely the methodology of criminal investigation. The relevance of the research is determined by changes in the structure of crime, the reform of law enforcement agencies, the increasing complexity of legal regulation and the growing impact of high technologies. The purpose of the study is to identify directions for improving the general and special parts of the criminal investigation methodology. Based on a historical and legal analysis, the article clarifies the content and correlation of the notions of "methods" and "methodology" of investigation and substantiates the recognition of the investigation methodology as an independent section of criminalistics. It demonstrates the need to include in the general part of the methodology issues of organizing the investigation of complex multi-episode and transnational crimes, as well as the further development of the theory of the criminalistic characterization of crimes and the criminalistic theory of the attribute. Special attention is paid to the role of crime attributes and to the prospects for using big data and artificial intelligence technologies to develop digital and predictive criminalistic characterizations, including for offences with limited empirical practice. The article also substantiates the inclusion of trial tactics and crime prevention in the investigation methodology and proposes the following sequence of stages of criminalistic activity: detection, disclosure, investigation, judicial examination, prevention of crimes

The article proves the expediency and urgent need to use the tools, techniques and methods developed in the science of criminology in other areas of legal and other law enforcement activities other than criminal procedure. There is a tendency to expand the fields of application of forensic knowledge, as well as to increase the objects of attention of modern criminology without changing traditional ideas about the objects and subject of this science. The possibilities of criminalistics in solving problems arising in specific situations (conditions) of using criminalistic knowledge in ensuring civil (civil, arbitration) proceedings, administrative proceedings and customs proceedings are shown. At the same time, it is shown that forensic (expert) methods and technologies of identification (fingerprinting, habitoscopy, DNA identification, etc.), as well as technologies for detecting counterfeiting of banknotes and securities remain unchanged in the listed forms of procedural activity. Without any modifications, they can be used in criminal, civil, administrative proceedings; operational search, customs, banking or management activities, as well as in the field of forensic support and business protection (entrepreneurial activity). Attention is drawn to the fact that in order to master all the competencies listed in the educational standards of higher legal education, teaching forensic (professional) thinking at all levels of legal training should become a core task of criminology, which will be solved based on the use of methods of logic, psychology and other sciences, using game theory, reflexive management, factual analysis, information modeling, etc.

This article is devoted to one of the urgent tasks of theoretical development of modern forensic science, which has a clearly expressed applied significance — ensuring judicial investigation in civil proceedings. Based on the interdisciplinary status of forensic science as a science that develops not only a special methodology for the investigation and prevention of crimes, judicial investigation, but also forensic support for judicial activity in other types of legal proceedings, we are faced with the need to create private teachings and theories in its development. At the same time, forensic support is needed for the means (sources) of evidence that are admitted as such by the legislator in civil and arbitration proceedings. From the understanding of proof as a cognitive and practical activity consisting of obtaining (collecting, securing), examining and evaluating evidence, it follows that the use of forensic capabilities should relate to those admissible in the process: written evidence, material evidence, explanations of the parties and other participants in the process, testimony of witnesses, audio and video recordings, expert opinions and testimony, consultations and testimony of specialists. It should also cover general methodological principles taking into account the stage-by-stage nature of legal proceedings, the distribution of the burden of proof, its adversarial nature and other features of civil and arbitration processes.

The article at an interdisciplinary level deals with the issues of monozygotic twins individualization using forensic DNA identification methods. The problematic area is that STR analysis, which is the basis of expert methods and the creation of genetic databases, produces identical DNA profiles with samples of monozygotic twins. From the perspective of an integrating specialist the legal, statistical and molecular-genetic aspects of the problem are discussed. The consequences of this limitation for the investigation of crimes and legal proceedings in criminal and civil proceedings are demonstrated using examples from practice. It is shown that, given comparable factual circumstances, the court decisions may differ significantly. Data on the frequency of natural birth of monozygotic twins are presented, and a noticeable increase in the frequency of births of monozygotic twins is noted in connection with the use of medical reproductive technologies. It has been substantiated that, despite the initial genetic identity, the accumulation of spontaneous mutations, variability of epigenetic markers, as well as other factors lead to the emergence of differences in monozygotic twins detected by modern technologies. The types of such differences, their molecular mechanisms and prospects for application in criminalistics and forensic medicine for establishing identity and family links are considered. The problems and prospects for further development of identification of monozygotic twins issues are discussed.

The article examines the emergence and formation of the first private forensic theory, the theory of forensic identification. It is indicated that the term "identification" was introduced into criminalistic usage by the famous French criminologist A. Bertillon. The article highlights the special role of S.M. Potapov, a graduate of Moscow Imperial University (1896), in the formation of this theory, who laid its scientific foundations as a private forensic theory, defined the forms of identification, classified identification objects, and outlined the basics of identification research methodology. The article considers a significant contribution to certain provisions of the theory of criminalistic identification by B.I. Shevchenko and V.Ya. Koldin, who were engaged in scientific and pedagogical activities at the Department of Criminology at Moscow State University. B.I. Shevchenko is the author of the classification of traces in tracology based on the mechanism of trace formation, which we are currently using. V.Ya. Koldin improved the scientific apparatus of identification theory, developed a methodology He created an algorithm and structure for the interaction of subjects of search and identification activities in proving

The article analyzes the contribution of scientists from the Department of Criminalistics of the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University to the creation and development of the information and cognitive concept of criminology. The emergence of this concept was due to both the need for criminology to create common theoretical and methodological provisions that would allow them to be used to analyses the available empirical material, and the need to distinguish the fields of research between criminology and criminal procedure. At the same time, the use of an information-cognitive approach to the analysis of the subject and object of criminology would be impossible without the creative use of methods and tools of computer science and cybernetics by scientists of the department. The author examines the evolution of the views of the authors of this concept, analyzes its conceptual framework. There are positive aspects of this concept as identification of common patterns in various types of forensic activities based on the analysis of information processes taking place in them; understanding of criminal and criminalistics activities as complex information systems; creation of unified theoretical and methodological foundations for the study of criminalistically significant information about criminal activities; development of information proving technologies. The conclusion of the article is the possibility of using a number of ideas of the information and cognitive concept of criminology in modern conditions.

The modern criminalistic recognition of corruption crimes was resulted after long evolution of scientific views, developed by both Russian and foreign scientists. Initially, such kind of crimes was a matter only for criminal law studies. However, their criminalistic awareness started already in the first quarter of the 20th century. The increasing role of the state in social life after the First World War make it inevitable due to increasing risk of any disruption in functioning of the administrative apparatus. The concept of "white-collar crime" was put forward in the United States, as a kind of criminality which was significantly different from the crime of the "lower classes" ("blue collar"), since such criminals are formed in completely different social conditions and have different skills than ordinary offenders. Basing on it, the doctrine of "corporate criminality" was developed. Soviet scientists followed a similar path, which was shaped not only under the doctrine of the class nature of crime but for increasing demands to solve practical problems. Initially, they considered "economic and official crimes" as a unified group, since it was the state that became the main business entity. Subsequently, the managerial component was selected out, and that ideas became foundations of a modern understanding of corruption crimes

March 13, 2025 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Valentin Yakovlevich Koldin, Doctor of Law, Professor, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honored Professor of Moscow State University, veteran of the Great Patriotic War, methodologist, outstanding criminologist, whose developments had the most significant impact on the development of domestic criminology and the birth of forensic expertise. This date has become a serious reason for rethinking the scientific and methodological legacy of the scientist. It has been established that the role often attributed to Valentin Yakovlevich in the formation and development of forensic identification reveals only a small part of his significant contribution to science.

The work carried out shows that the evolution of his methodology and system of views is concentrated in three fundamental results: the consolidation of universality for criminalistic identification not only in criminal proceedings, but also in all other types of legal process, as well as in law enforcement in general; the formation and development of the idea of forensic technologies in law enforcement, which united several generations. criminologists; substantiation and presentation of an expert-criminalistic picture of the world of law enforcement. Taken together, these provisions rightly claim to be paradigmatic in nature and may (already are) influencing the revision of the place of criminology in the system of scientific knowledge.

The article analyzes the problems of expert assessment of the emotional state of persons who have committed offenses, including multiple murders, in order to establish the presence or absence of affect in them. The criteria of the forensic psychological examination of legally significant affect, the features of its diagnosis and methodological approaches to the definition are considered. The subspecies of affect and the specifics of their qualifications are considered. There is a discrepancy between the psychological concept of affect and the legal concept of a sudden strong emotional disturbance; unjustified exaggeration by the legislator of the importance of circumstances provoking affect, when qualifying affective actions under privileged articles of the Criminal Code (107, 113), while not paying due attention to the analysis of the characteristics of the behavior of the accused at the time of the crime, before and after aggressive actions, and also not taking into account the subjective factor in the perception of the conflict situation, the personality of the accused, the presence of "pathological soil" and others. At the same time, in persons with mental abnormalities (within the framework of sanity), one can observe a weighted picture of affect with signs of deep affective narrowing of consciousness, when at the height of an affective explosion, affective aggression radiates to others, who often happen to be accidentally involved in a traumatic situation or have a distant relationship to it (the so-called widespread or radiating affect-torts)

Among the variety of forms of criminal activity with the use of firearms and (or) explosive devices in recent years, cases of armed attacks on educational institutions, which take the form of mass murders, have taken a special place. Given the comparative novelty of this phenomenon of russian reality, there is an urgent need to develop adequate tactical and methodological approaches to their investigation and prevention. This article is the first attempt in the Russian criminalistics science to make a systematic analysis of the structural elements of the criminalistic characteristics of mass murders in educational organisations. Typical information about the crime scene conditions, the method of committing the offence, the trace picture, as well as the characteristics of the personality of the offender are considered. The article substantiates the position that it is inexpedient to single out as a separate element of criminalistic characteristic the information about the personality of victims — their choice is non-personalised, the determining factor is physical reach. These offences are often replicas of previously known acts of violence. This directly reflects on their criminalistic uniqueness and emphasises their supranational character, as well as indicating the potential specificity of their manifestation in the Russian context.

The article is devoted to the Faculty of Soviet Law, which existed at the 1st Moscow State University from June 1925 to April 1931. Within the framework of this faculty, there was a significant revival of the legal training system that operated at the Imperial Moscow University before the 1917 revolution. The article reveals the background and causes for the new reform of legal education in Soviet Russia, which resulted in the establishment of the Faculty of Soviet Law at Moscow University instead of the law department of the Faculty of Social Sciences; it describes the internal organization of the faculty, analyzes its educational program and the methods of teaching law used here. Special attention is paid to the students, the teaching staff and the heads of the faculty. The article consists of three sections: 1. Introduction, 2. Establishment of the Faculty of Soviet Law of the 1st Moscow State University: its structure, curriculum and methods of teaching law. 3. Students, teachers, and deans of the Faculty of Soviet Law.

The article deals with the issues of limiting property rights in the western provinces of Russia. The study touches upon the problems of peasant land ownership and the policy of Russification of these territories. Extensive normative and legal material, judicial practice and archival documents are involved. The Polish uprisings in 1830–1831 and 1863–1864 radically change the state activity in the region. There is a consistent restriction of the rights of the Polish gentry, and the Russification of the region begins. The decree of 10 December 1865 introduces the concept of a "person of Polish nationality" and limits the right of the gentry to own land. Polish peasants did not fall under the Decree, and their right to purchase plots of land was not limited. The process of forming a new layer of large Polish landowners from former peasants begins, which raises serious concerns in government circles, since this does not correspond to the ongoing policy of Russification of the region. At the end of the 19th century the practice of applying the Decree of 1865 identified a number of problems, including those concerning the circle of persons to whom this normative legal act was to be applied. When determining the authority of a subject, religious affiliation is put at the forefront. At the same time, the issue of replacing the concept of "person of Polish nationality" with "person of foreign religions" is raised. The article shows the difference in views in the government regarding the legal regulation of the lands of non-noble Poles. A conclusion is made about the sufficiently balanced approach of the legislators in developing the laws and in-depth study of the problems identified in practice.

The importance of P. Atiyah's views for the development of the will theory of contract cannot be overstated. His studies on contract law stand out among other doctrinal sources of common law, which were strongly influenced, on the contrary, by the bargain theory. Their analysis shows that the influence of civil law on the understanding of the contract, which became most powerful in the 19th century, still exists to this day. However, a number of critical remarks and challenges regarding the will theory force the author to seek answers to the expressed doubts. Their analysis helps to conclude whether the will theory is able to retain its significance and adequately respond to the demands of contract law.

This article presents the recollections of a grateful student regarding his teacher — Ruslan Fedorovich Vasiliev, Doctor of Law and Professor at the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law of the Moscow University Law Faculty. The author talks about his teaching style and scientific supervision, recalls his contribution to the scientific support of law-making activities, and turns to the most interesting topics of a number of scientific studies by R. F. Vasiliev.

The review of the scientific conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor V.Y. Koldin provides information about the speakers and the topics of their reports. The variety of topics indicates the versatility of the analysis of the scientist's work. The discussion focused on the influence of the professor's teachings on the development of criminalistiks science and forensic examination in Russia over the entire period; the significance of the fundamental collective works of criminalistiks scientists, forensic doctors and specialists in other expert fields published under his editorship and with the authorship participation in 2002 "Material Evidence. Information Technologies of Procedural Proof" and in 2007 "Forensic Science. Information Technologies of Proof", as well as his monograph "Forensic Identification" (2002), published in 2019 in English; the problems of personal identification when examining numerous remains, especially; on the importance of forensic analysis methodology in combating crime in the financial market. The main thesis of these speeches was the relevance of the provisions characterizing the scientist's contribution to the development of scientific knowledge for modern criminalistiks and forensic examination and the use of this knowledge in law enforcement activities, as well as his high moral qualities.