The legal system of the country must correspond to the needs of the time. This is the main reason why reform and continuous improvement of laws becomes inevitable. Moreover, the task of the state is not only to approve innovations in all spheres of life, but also to protect the rights of the individual. In particular, this aspect concerns the retroactive effect of the criminal procedure law.
The meaning and application of retroactive effect of the law
Retroactive force of a law is a condition under which this law can be applied to events or facts that occurred before the entry into force of the adopted normative act. On this issue, Article 54 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation says that laws that worsen or abolish the rights of the subject of an offense have no retroactive effect. That is, if yesterday a person committed an act that was not previously considered criminal, but today it has become such, then he will not be held accountable.
In more detail, the operation of the criminal procedure law, depending on the time, is set out in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In particular, the issue of applying the retroactive force of the law is considered in article 10. Thus, a criminal law that toughens punishment, for the first time establishes responsibility or in some way infringes upon the rights of participants in criminal proceedings, does not have retroactive force. For example, an accused cannot be sentenced to a harsher sentence if a milder law was in effect at the time of the commencement of the trial.
Types of retroactive effect of criminal law
With regard to the adoption of amendments mitigating punishment, abolishing the criminality of the act or otherwise improving the position of the subject of the offense, the criminal procedure law has a retroactive effect. How is this principle implemented in practice? Distinguish between simple and revision retroactive force. The simple variation concerns suspects or defendants who have not yet been sentenced. If at this moment an article in the law is changed to a less serious one, the judge can take this fact into account during the trial.
The auditing force of the criminal procedure law applies to those persons who have already been convicted prior to the adoption of the mitigating amendments. In this case, all criminal cases are subject to review, in which, at the time of the updated law, a less severe punishment would be imposed or the situation of the convicted person would otherwise be improved.
For example, on December 7, 2011, an amendment was adopted in the Federal Law No. 420, which decriminalizes the infliction of property damage in the amount of up to 250 thousand rubles by abuse of trust or deception. This means that a person serving a sentence for this act can apply for the annulment of the conviction. If the category of the crime is changed to a less serious one, the convicted person can count on a revision of the conviction with a decrease in the period of repayment of the conviction.
The retroactive effect of the criminal procedure law does not apply in cases where the sentence has been fully served. Revision of the judgment becomes impossible. Currently, the issue of annulling a criminal record is being considered, even if the person served the appointed term of imprisonment, and only then the criminality of his act was eliminated in the new criminal law.
