Is the abuse of right possible?

The article investigates the Russian soci-ety's legal life phenomenon of abuse of right. Presently, this notion is used over-all, in all kinds of legal relations, including administrative, criminal and constitutional (human rights). In the given article the author makes an attempt to show that the use of this term is wrong historically, and in the modern foreign legal systems the notion abuse of right or chicanery is used only in civil relations, being criticised even there. The article consists of three parts: in the first one the author examines the origin of the institution of right abuse, tracking it's onset in the Roman law, with its form being not the same as it is applied by the modern legal science. In the second part the author analyses the interpretation of this notion in the legislation of foreign countries in historical and modern perspective (in Romano-Germanic and common legal systems). In the third part the author turns to the investigation of this notion in the Russian Federation law with dividing it in civil and criminal laws.