Grounds and Procedures for Instituting Criminal Proceedings According to Soviet Law and the Principles of the Administration of Justice in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

• NCJ Number: 90521
• Author(s): B Viktorov
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 37 pages
• Sale Source: Lexington Books
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper discusses the Soviet Union's legal doctrine bearing on the causes of crime and the means of its eradication, ensuring the enforcement of criminal laws, grounds and procedures for instituting criminal proceedings, exemption from criminal responsibility, and the principles for administering justice in the Soviet Union.

Abstract

Soviet legal doctrine begins from the theoretical position that the abolition of private ownership of the tools and means of production and class exploitation leads to the elimination of the root social causes of crime. Crime, therefore, stems from persons not indoctrinated in and committed to socialist ideals, and stern punishments are provided for their crimes, with reeducation and rehabilitation of the offender also being chief goals. The basis for criminal responsibility is the commission of a socially dangerous action stipulated in criminal law. There are various grounds for exempting a person from criminal responsibility for an unlawful act, with the nonimputability of the offender being one of the most important circumstances. The presumption of innocence and the rules flowing from it operate at all stages of the Soviet criminal process, and procedural law governs all stages of criminal processing. Justice is administered exclusively by Soviet courts, and the courts function under precise procedural conditions designed to determine the truth about the case and pass a just sentence should conviction occur. The independence of judges is paramount, as they are bound only by the law and their inner convictions based on an examination of all the circumstances of the case. Twenty-four notes are listed.