SOME ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF SPECIAL GROUNDS FOR THE EXEMPTION FROM CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY IN CASE OF THE VOLUNTARY SURRENDER OF WEAPONS UNDER THE RF CRIMINAL CODE AND THE RA CRIMINAL CODE

The existence in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia of the incentive norms is an alternative response of the state to the illegal behavior of a person committed a crime. The notes to Articles 222-223.1 of the RF Criminal Code and Articles 235-236 of the RA Criminal Code are the norms of “double prevention” that helps to prevent crimes related to illicit arms trafficking. The paper aims at the study of the incentive norm on the voluntary surrender of weapons, the issues of its regulation as a special ground for the exemption from criminal liability. The author considers the most frequent in law enforcement problems related to the solution of the issue of the exemption of a person from criminal liability in the case of his/her voluntary surrender of weapons, determining the features of the surrender voluntariness, including when performing such investigative actions as search and seizure. An unreasonable application of the incentive norm of voluntary surrender of weapons when performing investigative actions in the absence of an alternative variant of the behavior of a guilty person promotes its abuse. The author uses the comparative-legal method successively uttering the attitude of the RA Court of Cassation and the RF Supreme Court towards the issues of voluntary surrender of weapons. Often, courts as well evaluate in various ways the actions of people who voluntarily surrender weapons, supplies, and high explosives. To achieve uniformity in law enforcement on the issues of interpretation of voluntariness of actions of a person surrendering weapons, the author suggests relying upon the subjective criteria of evaluation. The author proposes not to exempt from criminal liability a person who committed a crime using weapons before its voluntary surrender, except the cases when an attempted crime took place.