Philological aspects of criminal law

Objective: to detect the influence of text-study mechanisms of philological analysis on the formation and development of criminal law legislation and law enforcement.

Methods: the general scientific method of dialectical cognition and the specific scientific methods based on it: historical, comparative-legal, concrete-sociological, formal-legal, and philological.

Results: the article shows various aspects and stages of the connection between philology, law-making, legal perception, and law enforcement. The author examines issues related to the interpretation of legislation, the results of judicial interpretation of law-making, and the impact of regulatory provisions on the criminological situation. The theoretical significance of the philological method in legal research is substantiated, as well as the potential of analyzing philological and legal issues as a scientific field. The study demonstrates that the legal norm effectiveness depends on its compliance with linguistic paradigms, established concepts, specialized terms, and ways of constructing phrases. Examples of criminal law innovations are provided, and their characteristics are examined in terms of their effectiveness, their positive or negative impact on combating crime, their potential for corruption, the presence of contradictory provisions, veiled ambiguity, and legal fictions. These issues are considered within the following blocks: the emergence of a legal idea through the philological mechanisms of discursive thinking; the formulation and discussion of the idea of a legal norm; the implementation of a legal idea in the text of a draft law; analysis and discussion of the draft law, correction of ambiguous and contradictory terms, final formulation of dispositions and sanctions; interpretation of the law; systematization of criminal law concepts and structuring of codified law, perception of the law by citizens, and reflection of the objective content of the legal norm in their legal consciousness, the subject’s thoughts, feelings, and attitudes.

Scientific novelty: the directions of interaction between philology and law were identified, focusing on the mechanisms of transforming legal ideas into legal norms. The stages of this process were analyzed, along with the manifestations of philological patterns in the formation of law, the causes of distortion of the legislator’s legal idea, the discussion of legal norms, their modification at the stage of drafting bills, and their perception by the legal community and the public. The article illustrates the possibilities of using corruption-related pressure and lobbying in law-making and law enforcement, as well as the negative consequences of neglecting philological laws when developing, adopting, and amending criminal legislation.

Practical significance: the author substantiated recommendations for using philological patterns in the design of legal norms and their adaptation to law enforcement practice during interpretation and use.

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