Social and legal grounds for retroactive force of the criminal law

The retroactive force of the criminal law is a constitutional principle, the content of which has been well studied by domestic researchers. However, in our opinion, the fact that it is socially and legally conditioned has been unfairly ignored. We are convinced that the retroactive force of the criminal law is based on the category of «public danger», because the absence of this category makes the application of criminal law measures meaningless and, moreover, leads to excessive criminalization and penalization. Public danger cannot be considered standing alone by itself and is an abstraction if taken outside of social relations. It occurs only when a person exercising personal interest, causes harm or creates a threat of harm to legally protected values and goods.

retroactive force of criminal law, crime, punishment, public danger, criminalization, decriminalization