Towards Developing a Concept for the Evolution of Criminal Justice in the Context of the Digital Transformation of Society and the State: Structure, Principles, and Goals

The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of developing a concept for the evolution of the criminal justice system of the Russian Federation amid the digital transformation of society and the state. To achieve this aim, the paper sets and addresses the following objectives: to examine the ideals and norms of knowledge organization at the fundamental-conceptual level within the broader history of philosophy and science; to identify and describe the specific application of the deductive-axiomatic model in the field of criminal justice; to formulate principles for the concept of criminal justice development in the context of digitalization; and to outline preliminary goals for the evolution of criminal justice under the digital transformation of the state and society. The methods of analysis, abstraction, generalization and conceptualization are used. The experience of the initial stages of digitalization of criminal proceedings as described in scholarly publications by Russian legal scholars is analyzed; a critical assessment of the planning of this process is offered; and the potential and limits of managing current changes are demonstrated. The necessity of constructing the concept of digitalization of criminal proceedings in the form of a deductive-axiomatic system is substantiated. In this system, general principles are formulated as axioms that serve as the foundational premises for defining goals and selecting the means (institutions, technologies) necessary to achieve them. The principles of efficiency and the principle of justice are proposed as the principles of the concept of the development of the criminal justice system in the context of the digital transformation of society and the state. The goals of introducing technical innovations and organizational and legal innovations are to protect an individual using a computer, protect an individual from another individual using a computer, and protect an individual from the computer itself. The special role of applying an interdisciplinary approach combining the means and methods of legal science with the cognitive capabilities of philosophy, logic, management theory and other socio-humanitarian sciences is noted, and tasks for new research in this field are outlined.

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