Reconciliation in Law: Criminal Liability in a Conflictological Discourse

摘要

The article reviews the history of criminal law and criminal liability in a conflictological discourse. Relying on the concepts of legal pluralism, the authors look at the transformation of the criminal law mechanism of resolving conflicts. They analyse still existent customs of blood feud, reconciliation of blood enemies as well as other customs of Amazonia and North America, explaining reasons for preserving such customs in a more developed society till our days. The article analyses reasons for ritualisation of reconciliatory procedures in the ancient times and reasons of disappearance of the notion 'the injured party' in the repentant law and reasons for borrowing a religious concept of liability not before the injured party but before the suzerain by the secular law. The authors come to the conclusion that legal pluralism is typical for the society due to a compensatory trend in the conception of criminal liability. Compensatory elements in the modern criminal law are considered as a positive, and the only possible, trend of further development of criminal law. The article has been written as part of project 18-29-14028 supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR).