Vol 8, No 1 (2022)

The article provides a theoretical study of the concepts «limits of law-enforcement discretion», «limits of lawenforcement discretion», «restrictions on law-enforcement discretion». The subject of consideration is also a significant number of classifications of the limits of law-enforcement discretion. Due to the lack of unity of opinion among legal scholars, various approaches are analyzed, attention is drawn to the theoretical and practical significance of the study of these issues. Attention is drawn to the importance of constructing a theoretical model of the limits of law-enforcement discretion based on the concept, features and classification of limits. The result of the study was the category «limits of law-enforcement discretion», which is complex in the modern general theory of law. It is suggested that the use of the category «enforcement discretion» will allow a more complete and accurate description of the modern procedure of legal regulation. The author presents for discussion the issues, the solution of which will contribute to the creation of a theoretical basis for the problem of the margin of appreciation in law-enforcement practice.

This article establishes that the genesis of protective legislation in the field of ecology is associated primarily with the scale and depth of the impact of society on its natural environment, with the awareness of environmental values in society and the development of environmental legal thinking. In the context of adaptive and adaptive-practical human impact on nature, the legal mechanism of nature management is based on a complex of property legal relations. On the example of the genesis of the protective legislation of pre-Soviet Russia in the field of ecology, it is shown that protonnormative provisions of an environmental nature appear in the domestic legislation of the XIX century. However, in the context of the transition of society from an adaptive, adaptive-practical to a purely economic (production-consumer) attitude to nature, they did not transform into an independent group of environmental legal norms, continuing to develop in property norm systems (including unauthorized use or destruction / damage of other people’s property), as well as about the people’s welfare, public accomplishment, deanery, etc.

The article discusses the understanding of administrative precedence in the criminal law of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. The author raises the problem of understanding the administrative precedence through the prism of the time when the crime was committed and the retroactive effect of the criminal law. The question of the validity of bringing a person to criminal and administrative responsibility in the event of a crime with signs of administrative precedence is also discussed. The author concludes that the administrative precedence is a sign of the subject of the crime, and not of the objective side of the corpus delicti. It is also justified that bringing a person for repeated or repeated offenses to administrative rather than criminal responsibility cannot in the future serve as a repeated basis for the perpetrator to be prosecuted for a set of repeated identical acts. For this reason, no one can be held responsible twice for the same act.

This article analyzes the problems of violent crime in places of deprivation of liberty. The author investigates the features of its content characteristics. The relevance of the topic is due to the prevalence of psychological phenomena in penitentiary practice, manifested in conditions of concentrated isolation of criminally deformed persons. The paper touches upon the issues of criminal subculture, which has special patterns of manifestation in correctional institutions. At the same time, a common distinguishing feature of the tacit impact of crime is the violent nature of maintaining authority among the prison population. It is noted that deprivation of liberty in itself also has the potential of a negative impact on the conflict of the penitentiary environment caused by derivational psychological processes. The author confirms the hypothesis that in places of deprivation of liberty, the personality characteristics of violent criminals are formed due to past criminal experiences.

The article considers the urgent problems of initiating a criminal case, the regulation of which has undergone significant changes in recent years, which in fact turned the verification of the existence of grounds for the start of the preliminary investigation into its initial stage, which is carried out by procedural means and methods, in connection with which its results have acquired all the signs of admissible evidence. This circumstance requires serious reflection, since it is incompatible either with the general understanding of criminal procedure or with the ideas postulated by classical theory about both evidence and the ways in which they are collected. Changes in the procedure of initiating a criminal case affect not only the entire pre-trial proceedings, but also the essential principles of the criminal process as a whole. As a result of the study, it is substantiated that the activities of the investigation and inquiry bodies, preceding the decision to initiate criminal proceedings, today have all the signs of criminal procedure; the conclusions arising from this statement are formulated, the main of which is the need to revise a number of theoretical postulates and, obviously, criminal procedure legislation.

This article is devoted to the analysis of combating crimes against human freedom, carried out at the level of key international organizations in the post-Soviet space (the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Union). A number of documents were considered, including the Interstate Program of Joint Measures to Combat Crime for 2019–2023, which does not mention the use of slave labor, which the author considers a significant shortcoming of international legal regulation. It was proposed to unify the concept of «human trafficking». The article analyzes the possibility of supplementing the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with a novel about the release from criminal liability of victims of certain conventional crimes.

The article reflects the main aspects of formation of legal regulation of the use of scientific and technical means when solving crimes by the employees of the criminal investigation department in Donbass in 1918–1953. A close relationship is indicated between the degree of introduction of scientific and technical means into the activities of operational officers of the criminal investigation department with the growth of quantitative and qualitative indicators in the fight against crime in Donbass in 1918–1953. Particular attention is paid to the interaction of operational and forensic departments of the internal affairs bodies in solving various types of crimes and there made it possible to effectively counteract crime and the growth of its most dangerous manifestations in the postwar years in the Soviet Union. It is summarized that on the basis of the accumulated experience, new research methods, scientific and technical methods were developed, which were introduced into the practice of criminal investigation. Supporting the need for direct cooperation of the investigative authorities with experts, it is indicated that it is inadmissible to make erroneous decisions based on the expert’s conclusions due to the influence of various factors.

This article examines the problem of the formation of criteria for assessing the reliability of the testimony of a witness, based on the analysis of the development process of this category. As a research task, the authors identified an attempt to evaluate the most traditional positions that determine its content, to compare them. The main content of the research is the analysis of the genesis of the category «witness» in the context of various historical periods. It is emphasized that the immediacy of perception underlies almost all definitions of the concept of witness. It has been established that, despite the duration of the existence of the studied category in criminal proceedings, the procedural functions of a witness belong to the category of poorly studied. The idea is substantiated that it is necessary to further improve the criminal procedural consolidation of the category of witness in conjunction with the demand for the development of forensic study of the witness and the formation of criteria for the reliability of the testimony of the witness.

The article describes some of the features of legal regulation of public procurement in the People’s Republic of China, Mongolia and the Russian Federation. In the article the key provisions of financial control and anti-corruption are highlighted and the priorities of state policy in these countries in the field of public procurement are noted. The legislation of China and Mongolia is analyzed from the standpoint of the possible use of their provisions to improve Russian legislation. So, the Chinese and Mongolian legislation, in contrast to the Russian, is more concise, has no reference character, etc. Purpose: All above confirms the relevance of further comparative legal analysis of the legislation of the People’s Republic of China, Mongolia and the Russian Federation in the field of procurement. Conclusions obtained in the course of the study: To identify the distinctive points in the legal regulation of financial control and the application of measures of responsibility for crimes in the implementation of procurement activities in the Russian Federation, the People’s Republic of China and Mongolia. Conclusions of the research: the legislation of Russia, Mongolia and China is improving methods of combating corruption offenses that are committed in the implementation of procurement activities. Despite the adoption of many legal measures, corruption crimes in procurement activities are committed quite often.

The article analyzes the features of using the institute of remote voting in the electoral process, including the problem of invalidation of elections associated with the use of this institute. The article reveals the features of implementation of the remote electronic voting procedure in practice, identifies the problems associated with the use of software in elections using remote voting methods, and also indicates the presence of gaps in modern legislation in terms of regulating the invalidity of the described elections, uncertainty in liability for violations in this sphere of electoral law. The article concludes about the shortcomings of the existing legal regulation and identifies possible solutions to the identified problems.

The article is devoted to the current problem of the effectiveness of the fight against sexual violence. The purpose of the article is to develop proposals for the prevention of sexual violence on the basis of Chapter 3 of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence as of 11.05.2011. The author uses the method of comparative law in the study, comparing the legislation of foreign countries and the Russian Federation in this area. The author focuses on information and educational activities as one of the most effective means of preventing sexual violence. The article summarizes the practical experience of foreign countries in combating sexual violence. As a research task, the author identified an attempt to assess the effectiveness of the policy of the Russian Federation in the field of countering sexual violence. In conclusion, the author notes that a comprehensive and effective system for combating sexual violence against women should be based on a solid State legal and policy framework, together with non-governmental organizations that have experience in combating this phenomenon.