«Connection» in the criminal law: issues of understanding and application

The authors in the article touch upon the issue of a uniform understanding of the terminological apparatus, in particular, the sign of conjugation used in the construction of criminal law norms. On the basis of the analysis of the norms of the criminal law, groups of crimes are distinguished in which the legislator uses the investigated feature, depending on its functional purpose. The study pays special attention to the issues of understanding the conjugation in the construction of a single complex crime, where, with its help, the legislator discloses and emphasizes the connection between a socially dangerous act and a mandatory sign of the objective side of a crime. Based on the results of the analysis of law enforcement practice, as well as the doctrine of criminal law, the authors come to the conclusion that the term conjugate is synonymous with the phrase perfect with application. In this connection, it is proposed in the criminal law in the constructions of single complex crimes to replace the use by the legislator of the sign conjugation with the synonymous phrase committed with application.