Significance of Non-Statutory Sources of Criminal Law When Evaluating an Act as Insignificant

Relevance. The correct solution of complex problems of law enforcement is facilitated by the appeal not only to legislatively fixed, but also to other sources of law. It is especially important to correctly determine the role of unofficial sources of law in the application of the criminal law, which is due to its exceptional position in the system of regulation of social relations, which are imposed on criminal law prohibitions by the requirements of clarity of expression, certainty of content and fairness. The theoretical and legal research needs a contribution to the content of the criminal law norms of other sources of law in determining the boundary between crimes of various types and administrative offenses, as well as in assessing the act as insignificant.

The purpose of the study is the theoretical and legal analysis of the role of legally fixed and not fixed sources in the application of criminal law.

Objectives of the research of the study include: substantiating the accounting and determining the role of sources of criminal law that are not legally enshrined in the qualification of crimes and the assessment of the act as insignificant.

The research methodology is based on the dialectical general method, and also includes the methods of analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, logical and system-structural.

Results. On the example of the qualification of crimes and the assessment of acts as insignificant, the admissibility of referring to sources of law not formalized by law is argued, since they play a significant role in the process of criminalization and in the formulation of criminal law norms. The influence of the development of protected public relations and the modification of encroachments on the content of sources of law is shown. The importance of taking into account these processes for bringing both the criminal law itself and the practice of its application in line with the emerging socio-economic and political conditions is substantiated.

Conclusion. When evaluating an act that formally contains signs of a crime, from the point of view of the possibility of recognizing it as insignificant, the appeal not only to the criminal law, but also to other sources of law, is due, firstly, to their retrospective role in the criminalization of acts, and secondly, to the dialectical connection of legal ideas with legal form and legal reality

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