History of development of legislation on responsibility for deliberate grievous bodily harm

Abstract

Crimes against life and health, including causing grievous bodily harm, are one of the oldest crimes in criminal law. Research of the history of criminal law makes it possible to analyze its development in the field of life and health. Threat of violence as a separate type of socially dangerous behavior occurs when such a threat does not cause the victim’s death or injury. Otherwise, if such effects occurred intentionally, the legal nature of the threat of violence is changing – from a single type of socially dangerous behavior ‟converted” to act in the mechanism of causing death or bodily harm to the victim. The urgency of the problem is that the crime of grievous bodily harm existed throughout human history, under different conditions and circumstances. Historical experience shows that during the period of radical change of social, socio-economic structure there is a significant increase in crime in general, and especially – violent crimes, which relates to grievous bodily harm. Analysis of legislation on liability for causing intentional grievous bodily harm should begin from ancient time when the basic foundations of the concept of the crime – since the formation of Kievan Rus. This article discusses the historical aspects of legislation on liability for intentional causing grievous bodily harm from the time of formation of Kievan Rus to the present time.