Justice as the ultimate goal of criminal law: General theoretical and methodological context

Abstract

This article aims to identify the key theoretical and methodological challenges associated with justice in criminal law and to find possible ways of overcoming them. Using the main principles of social philosophy and theory of law, the relationship between justice and law and the content of justice in criminal law were considered. It was demonstrated that justice must be pursued as an ultimate social goal of positive law, including criminal law: justice is a qualitative state of social relations when every person can fulfill their potential and is paid according to the public benefit from their work, and senior positions are held depending on the level of expertise, experiences, and meritorious service. Criminal law defines what activities are criminal, as well as specifies possible penalties to correct the convicted person’s behavior and prevent future crimes. These challenges should be the subject of in-depth analysis taking into account the achievements of Soviet criminal law and corrective labor legislation. The results obtained are of practical importance because they can be useful in building a system of criminal law measures to administer justice.

Keywords

• justice
• criminal law
• principle
• goal of law
• social philosophy
• theory of law