Incitement to Hatred or Enmity and Infringement on the Liberty of ?onscience and Religions: Differentiation Criteria

Abstract

The present paper conducts an analysis of the standards of Russian criminal legislation establishing criminal consideration for the violation of a right for the liberty of conscience and religions, and also standards providing responsibility for hooliganism and incitement to hatred or enmity and destroying human dignity. The author discloses the contents of dispositions of the relevant criminal provisions, analyzes the standards of Russian legislation which are blanket with respect to criminal standards; considers key elements of the corpus delicti of crimes which are an object of the research; points out criteria which allow to differentiate penal provisions and to resolve an issue concerning competition of the analyzed the corpus delicti of crimes. Moreover, the author analyzes tendencies of the change of criminal legislation providing responsibility for the violation of a right for the liberty of conscience and religions, and also standards providing responsibility for hooliganism and incitement to hatred or enmity and humiliation of human dignity. The paper critically analyzes an ambiguously estimated by experts approach of a Russian legislator to criminal legal protection of the specified legal relationship analyzes potentially possible issues of law enforcement, considers internal contradictions of the criminal law in this part and problems of its ratio with the standards of the Constitution and international legislation.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s3p233