Abuse of law from the standpoint of Russian legislation: prerequisites for revising the understanding of the essence and establishing liability

The article reveals the problems of defining the concept and essence of the institution of abuse of law, based on an analytical review of the specialized literature on the specified institution and judicial practice based on the application of art. 10 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It is determined that the main difficulties in interpreting the institution of abuse of law are the inability to identify common characteristics and criteria for abuse of law, and in law enforcement practice, to prove intent. The reasons for the problems that have arisen, according to the author, are not only the lack of detail in Russian legislation regarding the limits of citizens’ exercise of their rights and duties, but also the separation of abuse of law from other actions (inaction), such as lawful behavior, unlawful behavior, delusion and unintentional mistakes. From the author’s point of view, abuse of law should be differentiated into abuse of subjective law and abuse of authority. In this case, the entities directly involved in the abuse differ, which is the basis for both delineating intent and applying appropriate legislation to resolve disputes. As a justification for theoretical and practical conclusions regarding the institution of abuse of law, its essence and specifics, the opinions of civil scientists and the positions of law enforcement officers, who consider abuse of law as a diverse phenomenon, are given. Judicial practice has become especially valuable for studying the abuse of law. The conclusions formulated based on the results of the study can make a scientific contribution to the disclosure of the essence of abuse of law, as well as to the process of improving legislation and law enforcement practice regarding the institution of abuse of law.