Criminal Charge: Scientific Discourse and Problems of Legislative Consolidation

Introduction: “free” use of the term criminal charge at the legislative level and in its official interpretation is largely a consequence of the scientific discourse on the essence of criminal charge, the controversy that has been waged for decades in the theory of criminal procedure on problems related to the concept of criminal charge. In the paper, the authors set a goal to consider the admissibility of polysemicity when using the concept of criminal charge, to identify possible aspects of this legal phenomenon that allow us to reveal its essence and the procedure for its implementation in criminal proceedings. Methods: the methodological framework for the research is a set of methods of scientific cognition, such as the methods of information processing and logical analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, and generalization. Results: the results of the scientific discourse on the essence of the criminal charge presented in the paper make it possible to understand the problems associated with the polysemicity of the legislator’s use of this concept and demonstrate the influence of doctrinal ideas about the essence of legal phenomena on their legislative consolidation. Conclusions: the concept of “criminal charge” is an integral, interrelated system of aspects, the totality of which allows us to fully express its essence. Only consideration of criminal charge as a multidimensional phenomenon and as an integral systemic category that has certain natural properties and allows revealing its essence explains the ambiguity of using this concept in the text of the law.