Problems of Determining the Contents of the Subject and Method of Criminal Law Within the Current Concept of the Development of Public Relations
The subject and method of criminal law should be placed among those categories that are undeservingly forgotten in the Russian doctrine. This situation is mainly explained by the existence of established views regarding their contents. At the same time, the transformation of public relations, which took place over the 20th century and intensified in recent years, forces us to reflect on how well the basic concepts developed more than 100 years ago correspond to the current situation. Their ability to ensure the development of a unified and, most importantly, effective mechanism of criminal law influence should be reconsidered taking into account the factual changes in the model of public relations and its considerable differences from the previous model. Truly dramatic changes took place at the level of basic conceptual values; they influenced all spheres of human life, not least of which is law in general and criminal law in particular. Not all methods successfully used in the past correspond to new conditions and, at the same time, the development of new methods of influence is specifically limited by the boundaries of the subject and method of criminal law. In this situation West European lawmakers, who are guided by the idea of ensuring public safety viewed as an absolute principle, demonstrate a conceptually different approach to the choice of means and methods of counteracting crime. To achieve the desired result, western criminal legislation uses a maximally pragmatic approach while paying special attention to the personality of the criminal, not criminality in general. However, even this approach is now facing serious challenges. The development of technology made it possible to considerably reduce the personal space of each individual. Personal rights and liberties are under threat. At present, there are not answers to the questions on the limits of such impact and on how far a state could go to ensure its security, while the principles of postmodern are more and more aggressive in minimizing the very possibility for a person to have their own space not controlled by anybody else.