Almanac of law. Issue 17 (2026), pages 273–279.

DOI: 10.33663/2524-017X-2026-17-273-279

Hadzhuk O. S.
Victim as a subject of legal relations in criminal law: the necessity for a victim-oriented paradigm

The article provides a critical review of the paradigm of legal relations in criminal law, in which the state and the criminal are put forward in the first place, and the victim and his rights are perceived as secondary phenomena. When revealing the essence of the imperative method of regulation in criminal law literature, it is often emphasized that the imperative method assumes the presence of legally unequal subjects of legal relations, when only one of them is endowed with power and determines the mandatory boundaries of the behavior of another subject, without giving him the right to choose the form of behavior in a certain situation. The thesis is put forward according to which the participants in criminal law relations, unlike civil law ones, are unequal and are in subordinate dependence.

The correctness of this thesis may follow from the very essence of the imperative method of legal regulation, which assumes the inequality of subjects of legal relations as an inherent attributive feature of the corresponding method of influencing social relations. The unequal nature of participants in criminal legal relations is a sign of the ancient paradigm of criminal law, in which the relationship between the person who committed a criminal offense and the state represented by the relevant bodies is put forward in the first place.

The author joins the position according to which the theory of criminal law is currently on the verge of a paradigm shift, which leads to the formation of a new theory of legal relations in criminal law. Additional arguments are given in favor of the fact that the victim, as a complete and full-fledged subject of the aforementioned legal relations, should be given a prominent place. The study briefly examines the historical development of the theory of criminal legal relations, on the basis of which the need to lay the foundations of a more modern, human-centric and victim-oriented approach to the structure of criminal legal relations is proved.

At the same time, attention is focused on the fact that in the theory of criminal law an understanding is being formed regarding the need to change the paradigm of the subject composition of participants in criminal legal relations. More and more scholars share the idea of recognizing the victim of a criminal offense as a full participant in legal relations in criminal law. In addition, it is noteworthy that the matter has not yet progressed beyond voicing relevant declarations and intentions — a new theory of criminal-legal relations has not yet been proposed in the theory of criminal law, taking into account the victim as a participant in such relations.

We have taken certain steps in this direction. At the same time, the formation of a new theory of legal relations in criminal law is a vast topic that is promising for further study and requires separate consideration.

Keywords: method of legal regulation, criminal-legal relations, participants in legal relations, subject composition of legal relations, state, criminal, victim, victim-oriented paradigm.

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Дата першого надходження рукопису до видання: 16.02.2026
Дата прийнятого до друку рукопису після рецензування: 09.04.2026
Дата публікації: 30.04.2026