Durability of criminal-legal memory (on crimes without a statute of limitations)

Introduction. The norms enshrined in Art. 78 and Art. 83 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are a legislative reflection of such a property of the legal regulator as the strength of criminallegal memory. In turn, the exceptions that do not allow the application of statutes of limitations for certain types of crimes act as an additional tool for differentiating the criminal-legal reaction.

Purpose. The presented study is aimed at describing the stages of the formation of the norms in question and identifying the need for their further change; studying foreign (post-Soviet countries) experience in limiting the scope of application of statutes of limitations in criminal law; establishing law enforcement trends and generalizing judicial positions on the issue of applying Part 4 of Art. 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Methods. When conducting the study, an integrated methodological approach was used, including the following general scientific and specialized methods: general logical (analysis, generalization, analogy, induction), historical, comparative legal and statistical.

Results and conclusions. The current approach of the Russian legislator, which prohibits the application of statutes of limitations for a number of crimes, complies with international requirements and is generally similar to the current mechanism of legal regulation in the post-Soviet countries. The study examines the stages of formation and reform of Part 4 and Part 5 of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The author notes the absence of grounds for expanding the scope of Part 5 of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Based on judicial acts, the set of circumstances taken into account when considering the issue of non-application of the statute of limitations in accordance with Part 4 of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is summarized. According to judicial statistics, in recent years there has been an increase in the number of people generally released from criminal liability and punishment upon expiration of the statute of limitations, and especially for grave and especially grave crimes, including Part 1 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The latter is explained by the positive results of the work on investigating crimes of past years. The need to strengthen criminal-legal influence in relation to persons who committed simple murder by extending the effect of the optional procedure for applying statutes of limitations to such a crime (Part 4 of Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) is substantiated.

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