Social conditionality in criminal law: theoretical foundations

The presented article raises theoretical and applied problems associated with such an institution as social conditioning in criminal law. It is noted that there is no consensus among experts on the content of the concept of social conditioning; there are no comprehensive dissertation studies directly devoted to social conditioning and the formation of its fundamental theoretical and methodological foundations. Abconclusion is made about the need for doctrinal understanding of the category of social conditioning of criminal-legal protection of public relations, interests and benefi ts. Based on the analysis of theoretical concepts and the content analysis we conducted, it is established that social conditioning of criminal-legal protection of public relations, interests and benefi ts is abcomplex category integrating social conditioning of abcriminal-legal prohibition, abcriminal-legal status and criminal liability. It is stated that any criminal-legal prohibition should not be established by the state arbitrarily, without taking into account the factors indicating its objective social necessity. In this case, any prohibited act must be not only ablegal but also absocially conditioned phenomenon. As abresult, it is concluded that the social determinacy of criminal-legal protection of social relations, interests and benefi ts is an objectively conditioned social-legal phenomenon expressing abset of criminologically signifi cant factors that determine the need for legal protection of social relations and determine the patterns of criminalization/decriminalization, penalization/depenalization of acts.