The Right to Self-Defence and Protection of the Home to Be Discussed at SPILF 2022

Participants in the 10th St. Petersburg International Legal Forum will hold a discussion entitled ‘The Right to Self-Defence and Protection of the Home: Theory and Law Enforcement’.

Issues of permissible limits of self-defence are raised from time to time and become quite acute and resonant. In many countries, the principle ‘my home is my castle’ is associated with constitutional guarantees giving the right to inviolability of the home.

“Protecting the people that protect themselves and protect the lives and health of other people,” said President Putin at the meeting of Council for Civil Society and Human Rights on 9 December 2021.

The right to inviolability of the home is the most important constitutional human right. Today, when defending himself, a Russian citizen must assess the nature of the danger of violence or threat, he is limited by the limits of necessary self-defence, whereas a criminal is not limited by anything. As practice shows, there are cases where people who have defended their lives and the lives of their children have been sent to the dock and received real prison sentences. If the assailant is killed in self-defence, it is almost always a guaranteed real prison sentence. Without amending the law, will the next clarification by the Supreme Court have a significant impact on the established practice in cases of exceeding the limits of self-defence? How to create law enforcement practice aimed to protect the life and health of a citizen, his loved ones, as well as in case of performance of his civil duty to protect those who have been attacked? These are the questions lawyers will be discussing in the session.

The session will be moderated by Aleksandr Kozlov, Advisor to the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, State Counsellor of Justice (2nd class).

Speakers at the session will include Michael Gushchin, President, Federation of Practical Shooting of Russia; Oleg Zatelepin, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation; Michael Mawashi, Musician, Public Figure, Blogger; Irina Pankina, Deputy, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on State Building and Legislation, State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. 

The following participants are expected at the session: Tatiana Sergeeva, Auditor, Accounts Chamber of the Tula Region; Marina Yarosh, Head, Moscow Collegium of Advocates named after Major General of Justice A.S. Kudryashov.

For the Forum business programme, go to the official Forum website legalforum.info.

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