Russian Criminal Law in the Light of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

This paper is focused on the role of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereinafter - the ECHR) for Russian criminal law. The main purpose of the work is to provide convincing arguments about the importance of the role of the ECHR and the views of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter - the ECtHR) in the Russian criminal law system. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: determining the place of international treaties and the ECHR in the system of sources of Russian criminal law, defining the role of the ECHR practice for a correct understanding of the ECHR, analyzing the practice of the ECtHR on criminal law issues, including Russian criminal law. The methodological basis of the study was general and special methods of scientific knowledge, including methods of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, formal legal analysis, systematic analysis, comparative legal analysis, and others. The result of the study is presented in following achievements: the place of international treaties and the ECHR in particular, as well as the practice of the ECHR in the system of sources of Russian criminal law; the principles of interpretation of the ECHR, have been identified; the positions of the ECHR on the interpretation of the provisions of the Convention related to crime and punishment were determined Finally, the views of the ECHR on some aspects of Russian criminal law were presented.