Principles of proceedings on cases on administrative offenses: doctrinal definition and normative enshrinement

The article presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of doctrinal interpretation and normative consolidation of fundamental principles of proceedings on cases of administrative offenses. These principles are partly of a general nature, that is, they are based on the norms of the basic law of the state, part of the principles have found their consolidation directly in the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses; and part of the principles that can not be defined as less important, in the norms of law are not formulated with sufficient certainty, which does not exclude their actual application. Some uncertainty of a number of principles, the need to refer to the legal positions of the highest courts to determine the essence of norms of law, their correct interpretation, predetermine the need for further research into the principles of proceedings on cases of administrative offenses for the purpose of determining the possibility of improving the Russian legislation in this area. Application of the principle of law assumes that it is concretized, receives a uniform interpretation, that a doctrinal definition of its essence and the possibility of disclosure is formed both from the point of view of theory and in the aspect of law enforcement. From the position of analysis of the above principles it is important and consideration of their specificity, those features that are formed at present and allow to delimit the process of proceedings on cases on administrative offenses from other legal proceedings provided by the Russian legislation. The persistence of scientific discussions regarding the fact that a number of principles should not be considered as mandatory for the purposes of proceedings on cases on administrative offences, can be interpreted as the absence of a single, recognized by all or the majority of theorists and practitioners’ approach. Boundary of administrative and criminal responsibility in the presence of different definition of inevitability of punishment, which affects the very process of consideration and, in general, the proceedings on a case of administrative offense, can also be identified as factors by virtue of which it is necessary to reassess the presence or absence of fixing as generally binding a number of legal principles, including the principle of inevitability of punishment. The result of the study, set out in this article, contains the author’s conclusions regarding the range of principles of proceedings on cases of administrative offenses, the need for their revision, sufficiency of development at the level of doctrine of law, as well as consolidation in the legislation of Russia.