Legal liability

Depending on the industry affiliation of legal norms that enshrines such responsibility, the following are distinguished:

• Constitutional legal responsibility - is provided for officials, state bodies, deputies. It is applied in the manner determined by constitutional and electoral legislation.
• International responsibility - a type of responsibility applied by international organizations to public entities (usually to states) for violations of international law.
• Criminal liability - is applied in court to a person guilty of a crime. The only normative act establishing criminal liability is the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation .
• Administrative responsibility - applied by state executive bodies, as well as local authorities as measures of influence against perpetrators. The main legal act is the Code of the Russian Federation on administrative offenses . As part of administrative responsibility, they distinguish between administrative and financial, tax, and other responsibilities (administrative arrest, disqualification, compulsory work).
• Labor liability - sectoral legal liability that applies to the employee or employer (parties to the labor relationship), in the event that labor laws are violated ^[1] .
• Disciplinary responsibility - consists in imposing a disciplinary sanction on the guilty person for non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment by a person of his labor or official duties by the authority of the head. The main regulatory legal acts in the Russian Federation are the Labor Code , the Disciplinary Statute of the Armed Forces, the Disciplinary Statute of the Internal Affairs Bodies. Such a responsibility rests with the offender authorized by that person (director of the enterprise, head, etc.). This type of liability is realized in the form of a warning, reprimand , severe reprimand or dismissal .
• Liability - consists in compensation for property damage caused as a result of unlawful actions in the performance of labor duties. Workers are liable for damage caused to the enterprise, organization, institution, as well as enterprises, institutions, organizations for damage caused to employees by personal injury or other health damage.
• Civil liability - arises from the violation of property and personal non-property rights of citizens and organizations. The main regulatory act is the Civil Code of the Russian Federation . This type of liability is realized in the form of full compensation for harm and a fine .
• Family responsibility - the application by the court of measures to a person who dishonestly performs the duties enshrined in the RF IC. Family liability measures can only be attributed to: deprivation of parental rights, removal of a guardian and trustee from the performance of their duties, cancellation of adoption (in the case of the unlawful conduct of the adoptive parent).
• Tax liability - the application by executive authorities of measures of influence against persons evading taxes. It is imposed in accordance with the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. Since it is a separate type of responsibility, bringing a person to it does not exempt him from bringing to administrative or criminal liability.
• Procedural liability - may occur in case of violation by a participant in a trial of rules of conduct in court.

• application in the manner prescribed by law to the offender of measures of state coercion of a personal, property or organizational nature for a committed offense .
• the duty of the offender to be subject to measures of state coercion.

Thus, depending on the approach, it is possible to determine in different ways when a legal relationship of legal responsibility arises: from the moment a person undergoes state coercion measures or from the moment the offense is committed .

Highlight the retrospective and prospective side of legal liability. Retrospective is the result of an act committed in the past, perspective is the recognition by a person of the social importance of his activity and its possible adverse consequences (both in relation to society and in relation to himself). Despite the obvious isolation of prospective responsibility from practice, it is a methodological basis for highlighting, in particular, constitutional legal measures of legal responsibility.

The objectives of legal liability are a concrete manifestation of the general objectives of law. As such, they are the consolidation, regulation and protection of public relations. These goals determine the existence of the regulatory and protective functions of law.

Since legal responsibility is involved in the implementation of the protective function, its purpose in a general form can be defined as the protection of the existing system and public order . Responsibility applied to a specific offender has (along with the protection of public relations) a narrower goal - the punishment of the perpetrator . At the same time, the state, implementing a measure of coercion, pursues another goal - the prevention of the commission of offenses in the future (general and special prevention) ^[2] .

Among the functions of legal liability, first of all, a penalty, punitive . It acts as a reaction of society in the person of the state to the harm caused by the offender. First of all, this is the punishment of the offender, which is nothing but a means of self-defense of the society from violation of the conditions of its existence. Punishment is always inflicting spiritual, personal, material burdens on the offender. It is implemented either by changing the legal status of the violator through the restriction of his rights and freedoms, or by imposing additional duties on him.

However, punishing the offender is not an end in itself. It is also a means of preventing ( preventing ) the commission of new offenses. Consequently, legal responsibility carries out a preventive (preventive) function. By implementing punishment, the state acts on the mind of the offender. This effect consists in intimidation, proof of the inevitability of punishment and thereby in the prevention of new offenses. Moreover, the preventive effect is not only on the offender, but also on others. Thus, the so-called general prevention is achieved.

Moreover, the punishment is also aimed at educating the offender, that is, legal responsibility also has an educational function. An effective fight against violators, timely and inevitable punishment of the guilty create among citizens an idea of ​​the inviolability of the existing law and order, strengthen the belief in justice and the power of state power, and the belief that their rights and interests will be protected. This, in turn, helps to increase the political and legal culture, responsibility and discipline of citizens, enhance their political and labor activities, and ultimately strengthen the rule of law and stability of the rule of law.

In a significant number of cases, legal liability measures are not aimed at formally punishing the perpetrator, but at ensuring the violated interest of the public, the authorized subject, and restoring public relations violated by unlawful behavior. In this case, legal responsibility carries out a legal (compensatory) function.

Thus, legal liability is associated mainly with the protective activity of the state, with the protective function of law. But it also fulfills the intrinsic (regulatory) role inherent in law as a whole. The mere fact of the existence and inevitability of punishment provides organizing principles in the activities of society ^[3] .

In legal science , the following principles of legal responsibility are distinguished: legality , justice , inevitability of offensive, expediency , individualization of punishment , responsibility for guilt, inadmissibility of doubling punishment , as well as the principle of humanity.

The principle of legality consists in the accurate and steady implementation of the requirements of the law in the implementation of criminal, civil, administrative, disciplinary liability. Compliance with the requirements of the law (both material and procedural) is a necessary condition for achieving the goals of legal liability.

The main requirement of the material law is that legal liability should only occur for an act (action or inaction) prescribed by law and only in accordance with the law.

The main requirement of the procedural law is the validity of the application of legal liability to the offender, that is, the establishment of the fact of the commission of an unlawful act by him as an objective truth.

The principle of justice is the need to comply with the following requirements:

1. criminal misconduct cannot be established;
2. a law establishing liability or enhancing it cannot be retroactive;
3. whenever possible, legal liability should ensure compensation for damage caused by the offense;
4. punishment, recovery must correspond to the nature and degree of harmfulness of the offense;
5. a person is liable only for his own behavior (exception - the case of liability for the wrong of others under civil law);
6. for one offense - only one legal punishment is possible.

The last requirement should be understood in the sense that a legal penalty can be imposed only once. This does not at all exclude the possibility that, if necessary, for one unlawful act, both the main and the additional punishment prescribed by law (for committing crimes, administrative and disciplinary offenses) can be imposed on the offender. In addition, the offender may be held simultaneously liable for various types. For example, if an unlawful act contains offenses of two types at once, the guilty person can be simultaneously brought to disciplinary and administrative, criminal and civil liability, etc. (for example, the imposition of criminal punishment with the simultaneous imposition of the obligation to compensate property damage) . Legal punishment also does not exclude the application of public influence measures to the offender, since the offense is usually at the same time an immoral act.

The principle of expediency lies in the correspondence of the measure of influence applied to the violator with the objectives of legal responsibility in a democratic society. Expediency involves:

1. strict individualization of punitive measures, depending on the gravity of the offense, the circumstances of its commission, the nature of the identity of the offender;
2. mitigation of liability or even exemption from it in the case of a minor offense, the absence of harmful consequences, etc.
3. replacement, if possible, of legal liability with non-legal liability.

Recognizing the great importance of the inevitability of legal responsibility, a democratic state at the same time does not at all believe that every offense at all costs should entail precisely this responsibility, and the punishment imposed is always served in full. The law provides for the possibility of full or partial exemption from legal liability subject to certain circumstances. For example, a criminal law allows for complete exemption from criminal liability and from punishment even within the limitation period if, due to a change in the situation by the time of the investigation or trial in a court, a previously committed act loses public danger or the guilty person ceases to be socially dangerous.

The term of execution of the sentence may be reduced if the convicted person has proved his correction by his behavior. In such cases, the legislation provides for the possibility of parole of convicts, the replacement of the unserved part of the sentence with a milder punishment, the early removal of disciplinary sanctions, etc.

Under certain conditions, the legislation also allows the replacement of one type of legal liability with another (for example, criminal liability - administrative) and the legal responsibility itself with public responsibility (transfer of a criminal on bail to public organizations or a group of workers, transfer of cases of first-time offenses to friendly courts, etc. ) Such a transfer is allowed, provided that the offender can be corrected without punishment by the state, only by measures of public influence.

The principle of inevitability is one of the most significant principles of legal responsibility, the main condition for its effectiveness. The preventive value of punishment does not depend so much on its severity as on inevitability. The inevitability of responsibility means that no offense should remain unsolved, out of sight of the state and the public, without a negative reaction from them. The invariable task remains to use the full force of laws in the fight against crime and other offenses, so that people in any locality feel the state’s concern for their peace and integrity, they are sure that no offender will escape from deserved punishment.

In the work on the disclosure of crimes and other offenses an important place is occupied by the activities of such services of the internal affairs bodies as criminal investigation, bodies of inquiry and preliminary investigation, and others. Thus, the effective activity of the internal affairs bodies, as well as other law enforcement bodies and public organizations in solving crimes and other offenses, is called upon to ensure the practical implementation of the requirements of the principle of the inevitability of responsibility.

Принцип гуманности ярко проявляется, как в законодательстве, устанавливающем юридическую ответственность, так и в деятельности правоохранительных органов, применяющих её. Не допускаются меры наказания и взыскания, причиняющие физические страдания или унижающие человеческое достоинство. Не разрешается применение наиболее суровых мер ответственности (например, смертной казни, административного ареста) к беременным женщинам. Лица, не достигшие восемнадцатилетнего возраста, не могут быть подвергнуты не только смертной казни, но и лишению свободы на срок более десяти лет. Законодательство об уголовной и административной ответственности закрепляет исчерпывающий, не подлежащий расширению на практике, перечень обстоятельств, в законе перечисляются основные из них, представляя возможность правоохранительным органам признать их смягчающими. Имеется целый ряд других свидетельств гуманности юридической ответственности в России. Все эти правила установлены в целях защиты личности и обеспечения нормальных условий для исправления правонарушителей, возвращение их к честной трудовой жизнедеятельности ^[4] .

• связана с правонарушением , следует за ним и обращена на правонарушителя ;
• имеет государственно-принудительный характер;
• применение в строгом соответствии с законодательно установленной процедурой ;
• влечет за собой негативные последствия (лишения) для правонарушителя : ущемление его прав и обязанностей, возложение на него дополнительных обязанностей;
• возложение лишений, применение государственно-принудительных мер осуществляется в ходе правоприменительной деятельности компетентными государственными органами в строго определенных законом порядке и формах; вне процессуальных форм юридическая ответственность невозможна; ^[five]

NB Юридическую ответственность следует отличать от других мер государственного принуждения , например, предупредительных.

• Khachaturov R.L., Lipinsky D.A. General Theory of Legal Responsibility: Monograph. - SPb. : Publishing House of R. Aslanov “Legal Center Press”, 2007. - 950 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-94201-514-5 .
• "Theory of State and Law". Textbook for higher and secondary legal educational institutions.