Using of Uncertain Notions in Criminal Legislation

The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that despite the use of evaluative features in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation throughout the entire period of its development, there are still controversial issues related to the need to use evaluative features in the criminal law, while maintaining the evaluativeness of these signs in the process of reforming criminal legislation (supplementing criminal law norms containing evaluative signs with special notes, replacing evaluative signs with their interpretation, etc.), with the presence of contradictions in the interpretation and application of evaluative signs in law enforcement practice, as well as the existing danger of negative impact of evaluative features on the result of criminalization by “blurring” the boundaries of criminal behavior, since the definition of crime or non-criminality of an act is in the discretion of the law enforcement officer. The purpose of the work is to conduct a comprehensive study of the essence and features of the use of evaluative attributes in criminal law. The logic of the study of evaluative attributes in criminal law also determined the logic of the presentation of the material: the study of the history and current state of the use of evaluative features in the criminal legislation of Russia and foreign countries, and the issues of the peculiarities of the formation and interpretation of criminal law norms containing evaluative features, conclude the study.Structurally, the work has an introduction, three chapters, including nine paragraphs, a conclusion and a list of used literature. According to the results of the study, it was found that the features of the assessment allow criminal law to respond as correctly and accurately to each situation as possible, but at the same time allow you to apply an individual approach in each specific criminal case. Two groups of reasons are identified that explain the change in the number of articles of the criminal law with evaluative features: objective factors and subjective factors. The following definition has been clarified: evaluative features are criminal law concepts that are not interpreted and specified in the criminal law or other regulatory legal acts, reflecting the properties or relationship of the subject, the content of which is established by the law enforcement officer in accordance with the specific circumstances of the criminal case. The main types of evaluative attributes include quantitative, qualitative and aggregate evaluative attributes. It has been established that the evaluative features in the criminal law are inherent only in their inherent functions: evaluative, legislative economy, substitution, compromise, dialectical-prognostic, consolidating, normative and auxiliary. A condition for the effective application of criminal law is the proper consolidation of evaluative features in criminal law norms and their uniform interpretation by the law enforcement officer. The formation of criminal law norms containing evaluative features should be limited to cases of their forced use to ensure the necessary flexibility of criminal legislation.It is preferable to use evaluative features in order to differentiate and individualize criminal liability. It is also advisable to continue the trend of gradual transfer of evaluative features into the category of absolutely definite, measurable features in cases where the use of evaluative features is not justified by an objective necessity. The interpretation of criminal law norms, which contain evaluative signs, depending on the types of interpretation, should be based on the relevant requirements, including the mandatory motivation of the decisions taken.