Oikeushyvien suojelu rikosoikeuden tavoitteena – rikosoikeuden tehtävistä ja rajoista
Keywords:
rikosoikeus, yhteiskuntasopimus, oikeushyvä, kestävä kehitys, vapausAbstract
The protection of legal interests as the aim of criminal law – on the functions and limitations of criminal law
Criminal law is said to have the aim of protecting legal interests, or legal goods, if we use the well-known German expression. These days, such purposes are intimately linked with the principles of criminalisation, which in turn binds the functions and limitations of criminal law to constitutional law as criminalisations also restrict the use of fundamental rights and human rights. This constitutionalisation of criminal law does not, however, do away with the need to discuss even more broadly the working of criminal law in protecting legal interests or legal goods. The current article discusses theoretically, but also resorting to practical examples, the challenges and changes in this regard that are topical today. Criminal law continues to protect individual freedom, to give an example; however, at the same time, the understanding of what this freedom in fact means is in flux. In the article, we raise some issues relating to the aims of sustainable development, and we also refer back to theories of the social contract. The thesis being presented is that we do still need a critical theory and discussion which can account for in a principled manner and also dynamically the different individual and societal needs that may arise, but at the same time take care of the fundamental demands of the justification of criminal law as well as refute the often too vague expectations that criminalisations and criminal law can solve societal problems. The claim is also that criminal law theorising needs once again to be connected to political theory.
