Uridičeskaâ Nauka i Pravoohranitelʹnaâ Praktika (Dec 2014)
Theory of defamation in the doctrine of honor and dignity protection
Abstract
A significant growth of interest in the issue of protection of honor and dignity as personal intangible benefits is recently caused by two key acts: Federal Law of July 2, 2013 N 142 “On amendments to subsection 3 of section I of the first part of the RF Civil Code” and decision of the RF Constitutional Court of July 9, 2013 N 18 “On the case about verification of the constitutionality of the provisions of paragraphs 1, 5, 6 of Article 152 of the RF Civil Code in connection with the complaint of a citizen E.V. Krylov”. Further humanization of the civil law, its corresponding with human rights, as well as legislator’s wish to eliminate the backlog in regulations of relations on the protection of personal intangible benefits are obvious. The ongoing legislative changes became associated with the theory of defamation. A lot of defamation terms, relating to personal intangible benefits and characterizing the corresponding behavior, tort, doctrine, offence, appeared in the Russian jurisprudence. The phrase “defamation law” is more frequently used, but its logical-semantic boundaries, methodological guidelines and branch are not yet clear. Most of the provisions of the defamation theory are taken for granted, while the theory itself dates back to pre-revolutionary (bourgeois – for the Soviet jurisprudence) law and is undergoing a significant transformation currently. The need for theoretical elaboration of the defamation doctrine as applied to the new conditions of its practical application is substantiated. Therefore the necessary methodological guidelines are considered in the article.
