Joint Commitment of a Crime in the Doctrine of Russian Criminal Law (Middle XIX Century – 1917). Part 1

This paper examines the views of Russian scientists who had a significant impact on the formation of the institution of joint commission of a crime in Russian pre-revolutionary criminal law. At the same time, specific historical and comparative (comparative legal) methods are used to study the legal nature of the institution of joint commission of a crime. The authors come to the conclusion that this institution from the middle of the XIX century. develops much more intensively than before. Theoretical provisions on the joint commission of a crime, which mainly include complicity and implication, are published not only in textbooks and author’s lecture courses, but also in rather detailed monographic studies. The general approach to determining the types of accomplices, forms and types of complicity is beginning to be unified. The first attempts are being made to define the concepts of complicity and implication. In practice, a single terminological apparatus is being formed. At the same time, the difference in approaches to the total volume of the institution of joint commission of a crime is also obvious. Some researchers are trying to expand the concept of joint commission of a crime by including not only complicity, but also other forms, others are trying to cover the maximum possible number of cases of joint commission of a crime with the concept of complicity.