Abstract: The review characterizes the content of articles published by Polish, American, German, Bulgarian, and Czech specialists in the field of criminal law and proceedings, criminal science, the law of action and other legal branches devoted to the 70th anniversary of the rector of the University of Wroclaw, professor Mark Bojarski. The information about the criminal legal aspects of responsibility for actions shows that the models for codification of such provisions and the models for typification of infringements on the protected legal advantages are fundamentally different in different countries. Unlike the situation in Russia, where criminal law and administrative law are codified (the Criminal Code and the Administrative Offences Code, and the laws of Russia’s territorial units), in most other countries, together with criminal codes (laws), regulating the responsibility for crimes and actions, laws and other legal acts exist containing the compositions of crimes and malefactions and offences, and malefactions are considered as criminal offences (in Poland, France, etc). The authors use such research methods as dialectics, deduction, induction, and the comparative-legal method. The review reflects the estimations of the current state of the legislation, its gaps and drawbacks, the experience of reforming criminal responsibility, the arguments in favour of law-making decisions and particular disputable issues. The article represents the snapshot of the current state of legal thought focused on the problem of combating crime and offences and overcoming their socially detrimental consequences. The authors discuss theoretical background for searching for the criteria to differentiate crimes, malefactions, administrative delicts, and for creating the system of sanctions.  

Keywords: codification, malefaction, fine, penalty, sanction, crime, offence, responsibility, law, public danger