Criminal legal statutes: concept and features

The article deals with the analysis of the concept and features of a criminal legal statute. Inaccuracy and incorrectness of several notions of criminal legal statute are marked in the article; the following conventional features of criminal legal statute are litigated: 1) criminal legal statute is an obligatory rule of behaviour and official order; 2) the provision of criminal law is prescribed by the criminal law and is the only source of criminal law, and criminal law determines crime type and penalties for the actions; 3) criminal legal statute identifies rights and obligations due to crimes committed; 4) criminal legal statutes are assured by the state coercion by means of possibility to impose criminal penalty.