Dorogin D.A. Decriminalization of a deed as a circumstance eliminating criminal liability

Abstract: The article considers particular disputable issues of decriminalization of a deed from the viewpoint of its consideration as a circumstance eliminating criminal liability. The author touches upon various aspects of the problem, adduces the existing viewpoints and formulates his own position. Particularly, the criminal law doesn’t differentiate the absence of components of crime per se and the absence of components of crime due to the decriminalization of a deed, both from the viewpoint of reasons for termination of a criminal procedure and from the viewpoint of emergence of the right to vindication. The author applies general scientific and special methods, including analysis and the structural-logical method. The author concludes that decriminalization of a deed should be considered as a circumstance eliminating criminal liability. The act doesn’t contain the components of crime and such signs of crime as illegality and punishability. The author supposes that at present there exist theoretical, material-legal and procedural reasons for considering decriminalization of a deed as a circumstance eliminating criminal liability. The similar approach should be applied for defining a legal nature of the absence of the criminal law. 

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