The problems of legal assessment of factual circumstances when adjudicating in criminal proceedings

Introduction: the choice of the correct rule of law, based on a set of established circumstances of the case, determines the correctness of the court’s decision. This selection occurs as a result of the implementation of logical mental activities, in which the court makes conclusions on the compliance of the established facts, the content of material or procedural norms. Methods: the methodological framework for this study is a set of methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main is the dialectical method, as well as the methods of systematicity, analysis and synthesis. Results: the author’s standpoint grounded in the work is based on the legislation, judicial practice and opinions of the competent scientific community on the legal qualification of the factual circumstances of the case. Based on the analysis of the judicial practice, the levels of choice of legal norms to be applied are determined, and depending on the degree of definiteness of the legal norms, the models of the court’s decision-making are distinguished. Conclusions: the choice of an appropriate legal rule for decision-making is carried out in two aspects: in terms of determining the full scope of the legal regulation and hierarchy of legal norms, subject to application, and in terms of the level of discretion of the court in choosing a legal rule. The selection of legal norms to be applied in terms of hierarchy means that the court should identify the content of the rule in the full legal regulation, not limited to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, and to take into account the generally recognized norms and principles of international law, the provisions of the Constitution and its direct operation, as well as the precedents to the interpretation of law in the decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Resolutions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court and the ECHR. Depending on the level of discretion of the court in decision-making, due to the degree of definiteness of legal rules to be applied, it is necessary to distinguish three models of the court’s decision-making: absolutely definite, relatively definite and alternative.