Determination of the legal notion of homicide in both Polish and Russian criminal law. Selected aspects

Abstract

The key to the statutory characteristics of homicide in both Polish and Russian criminal law lies in the establishing of the semantic domain of this specific legal notion, which, docketed in Polish and Russian legal order, is a thought model reproducing illegal acts committed intentionally resulting in homicide. However, the explicit legal notion of this crime came into only in the 20th century ultimately excluding the possibility of either ‘registering’ accidental manslaughter or suicide, penalized for centuries, into its scope. Although a ransom, a drastic social therapy in the form of a bloody retaliation or ius talionis constitute now only a historical evolution marks of the right to punish for the crime of murder, the essence of penalty as a reprisal for the crime committed has been intact. The description of homicide only in strict legal terms yielding to normative force and dogmatic conversion can not be completed. The way to its right comprehension lies in rejecting the dominant in Polish and Russian criminal law notion of variegating of the scope of the legal protection of life of individuals for human development stage.