Criminal sanctions as a form of expression of punishment and a tool of criminal legal impact

Criminal law punishability has two forms of expression - dispositive (the provision of behavior as a crime in the criminal law) and sanctions (the establishment of a threatening punishment). At the same time, criminal punishment and sanction are correlated as content and form, as a means and measure. In this regard, the main attention is paid to the analysis of directly criminal sanctions in the context and within thof criminal law punishability. At the same time, it is wrong to understand under the sanction only a part of the article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code, which determines the type and amount of punishment for a crime. Sanction and punishment are interrelated and interdependent, but not identical. The concept of «criminal legal sanctions» combines the sanctions of criminal law norms and the sanctions of the articles of the Special Part of the Criminal Law, they have a number of fundamental differences, and the former are wider in content than the latter. Proceeding from this, the author’s «dualistic» definition of the concept of «criminal legal sanction» is formulated. At the same time, the need for consistency of criminal law sanctions and reasonable limitation of judicial discretion in their application is indicated, which will positively affect the quality and effectiveness of criminal law influence.