Criminalization and Decriminalization as an Indicator of Individual / Authorities Relations

In this paper, the author attempts to use various techniques and methods of legal interpretation and apply various types of interpretation of criminal law provisions to trace the trend of relations between the individual and the state through the lens of criminalization and decriminalization of socially dangerous acts. It is the procedures of criminalization and decriminalization that the law-maker uses to implement the will of the state and establish the vector and tension in relations between an individual / a citizen and the state authorities. To solve this task, the author traces, in the short-term, the legal and actual decriminalization of certain types of crimes – hooliganism, battery, libel and insult. Additionally, a review of legislative novelties associated with establishing liability for the so-called “insult of authority” and “fake news” is provided. The conducted analysis of the practice of decriminalizing certain socially dangerous acts leads to the conclusion that the state, represented by the law-maker, is consistently enforcing the policy that leads to reducing the level of individual’s legal protection and health, physical integrity, honor and dignity. Simultaneously, the legal protection of interests of the state, bodies of government and their individual representatives is evidently growing stronger, which is obviously misaligned with the policy of weakening the legal protection of certain constitutional human and citizen’s rights, as mentioned above. This trend can only be assessed ad negative, which in the nearest future may significantly increase the tension between the state and the individual, entailing negative consequences of both legal and social nature.