The article examines the ideological foundations of modern criminal legislation, in the aspect of crime and criminal punishability of socially dangerous acts. The author examines the influence of conservative and liberal approaches on the formation of the criminal law, its consistency, as well as the content of individual institutions and provisions. The degree and quality of such an impact of the liberal approach on the essential properties and substantive aspects of criminal legislation is thoroughly studied. In this regard, the author gives illustrative examples of negative manifestations of liberal views, argues argumentatively about the need to reflect the conservative value approach in the current criminal law. Similarly, the question of the manifestations of the liberal idea in the aspect of the formation of the penalization component of the Criminal Code is considered. It is argued that the rejection of the punitive concept of punishment led to the desystematization of the list of criminal penalties.