Penal law policy of the 1917 Russian Provisional Government
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu14.2018.101Abstract
The results of the proceedings of the Commission on Revision and Implementation of the New Penal Code set in 1917 by the Russian Provisional Government are discussed. The various legal sources of penal law employed by Russian law-makers between February and October, 1917 are specified. Changes made by the Provisional Government in the fields of Penal Law, Penal Executive Law and, in part, Penal Procedural Law as well as Administrative Law, are analyzed. Novelties introduced into the penal legislation included a temporary abolition of the death penalty and decriminalization of at least some manifestations of the freedom of speech. Some of the most obsolete repressive regulations of Imperial law were suitably nullified. The author concludes that right after the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the new Russian revolutionary authorities, consisting largely of well-trained legal professionals, tried to liberalize the existing penal legislation; yet as political crisis in the country deepened they reversed their policy toward a more repressive pattern.
Keywords:
1917 Russian Provisional Government, Russian penal legislation, death penalty, sources of penal law
Downloads
References
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Law" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.