The guilt of an electric power supply organization in case of illegal interruption in power supply

Introduction: The article is devoted to analysis of the guilt of an electric power supply organization as one of the conditions of its liability for illegal interruption in power supply. The legal structure of this civil offence makes incurrence of liability of the legal person engaged in power supply activities conditional on the presence of guilt, which is an exception to the general rule of an entrepreneur's enhanced responsibility. Thus, the issues of understanding the content of guilt of a power supply organization acquire particular importance. The purpose of the work is to form a concept of the guilt of a power supply organization basing on the analysis of scientific works and court practice material on cases of holding liable in accordance with Clause 2 of Article 547 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Methods: empirical methods of comparison, description and interpretation; theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; specific scientific methods: legal dogmatic method and method of legal norm interpretation. Results: The analysis of the practice in the application of Clause 2 of Article 547 of the Russian Civil Code and its scientific commentation shows that the categories of illegal interruption in power supply and guilt are equated, the category of guilt dissolves in the category of unlawful behaviour of a power supply organization and loses its independence within the elements of this offence. Conclusions: Both in the civil science and civil law, it is necessary to clearly differentiate between the unlawful behaviour of the debtor, including a power supply organization, and his guilt, since these are different conditions (elements of offence) of civil liability, each of which can independently exclude civil liability. The legal behavioural understanding of the guilt of a power supply organization coincides with the subjective indicator of its unlawful failure to act and does not have its own legal value.