More on the right of the state to punish

The article deals with the right of the state to punish. We believe that application of punishment by the state requires justification, because punishment is a type of state influence that inevitably interfere into the sphere of the rights and interests of the individual, affects his life and freedom. Issues relating to the grounds and limits of the applicationof punishment by the state play an important role in its crime control policy. The article considers the theories, both denying and justifying the right of the state to use various types of punishment in the process of governance, as well as purposes of punishment formulated in the framework of these theories. We have traced the development of ideas about the essence and role of punishment as an element of state policy at different stages of historical development. Based on an analysis of the attitudes of the representatives of historical and legal sciences, philosophy of law, we have come to the conclusion that application of punishment as a means of regulating social processes and individual behavior by any state, regardless of its system of government or political regime, is inevitable.