Armanas Abramavičius
Vilniaus universiteto Teisės fakulteto
Baudžiamosios teisės katedros docentas
socialinių mokslų (teisės) daktaras
Saulėtekio al. 9, I rūmai, LT-10222, Vilnius
Tel. (370 5) 236 61 67
Egidijus Jarašiūnas
Mykolo Romerio universiteto Teisës fakulteto
Konstitucinės teisės katedros docentas
socialinių mokslų (teisės) daktaras
Ateities g. 20, LT-08303, Vilnius
Tel. (370 5) 271 45 46
Summary
The most important principles of legislation and the fundamentals of various branches of law are established in the constitution. They define criminal law-making and application, also they make an impact upon the theory of law. In the article its authors deal with the issue of constitutional influence upon the criminal law. In its jurisprudence the Constitutional Court exposes the content of constitutional norms and principles which are important in the area of criminal law. When the Court exercises the constitutional control, it “purifies” the criminal law from the norms that contradict the Constitution as well. So the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court becomes a primary tool in re-shaping the criminal law. The decade of activity of the Court has resulted in a more profound influence of the Constitution on a science of the criminal law, legal regulation and legal practice in the area of criminal law. According to the authors of the article the constitutional dimensijon gradually evolves into one of the elements of criminal law. However for the time being we may recognize the dawn of constitutionalisation of the criminal law only. In this process the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court enjoys particular importance. This jurisprudence exposes the content of the constitutional norms and principles which are the criterion of evaluation of each and every piece of legal regulation. The analysis of the impact of the Constitution upon the criminal law enables the authors to draw several conclusions. It needs to be noted that the Constitutional dimension in the science of criminal law, in the legal regulation and legal practice in the area of criminal law is only gradually becoming one of inalienable elements in criminal law. If the compliance of the aforementioned norms is not evaluated both the scholarship and practice of criminal law would face the never-ending challenge of incomplete interpretation of the criminal law norms. When anti-constitutional norms are applied, the fundamental rights and freedoms of person become endangered. It is worth to be noted that long living understanding of the criminal law as an isolated branch of law is becoming more and more permeated by the understanding of the criminal law as constituent part of a system of law based on the supremacy of a constitution. One of the main tasks faced by the criminal law scholarship is to adopt important to the criminal law constitutional principles and norms as an inborn part of criminal legal thinking, criminal law-making and application.