Administrative Prejudice as a Special Legal Tool and Expanding its Use in the Criminal Code of Russia

Abstract

The paper analyzes the increase in the number of criminal law prohibitions, constructed using administrativeprejudice as a trend in the Russian Federation Сriminal Code. Currently, the Special partof the Code contains nine articles with such prohibitions. According to the author, all the introducedcriminal law prohibitions with administrative prejudice differ in their design features. The implementationof some of them causes serious difficulties in law enforcement practice. It is concluded thatthe use of administrative prejudice in the design of criminal law prohibitions should be scientificallysubstantiated. Besides, along with the practical problems of applying the relevant criminal law prohibitions,there is a problem of the administrative prejudice interpretation. In the doctrine of criminallaw, some scholars in determining administrative prejudice attempt to create only the concepts ofcriminal law (sectoral) concepts, other scholars use mostly theoretical constructs. Defining administrativeprejudice, scientists also interpret differently its legal nature and essence. Some of them see itas a phenomenon exclusively of law enforcement practice, others tract it primarily as a phenomenonof legal (legislative) techniques. Administrative prejudice is defined by the concept of prejudicially(legal) relationship, specific relationship, part of the process of proof, legal rule, a special way ofverifying facts, a legal technique etc. From the point of view of author, the best solution is consideringthis legal phenomenon as a special means of legal techniques along with legal axioms, presumptionsand fictions. This interpretation of administrative prejudice reflects its specificity in a narrow sectoralsense. Besides, this legal phenomenon can be defined in a broader sense, reflecting primarily itscross-sectoral nature of the position legal (criminal) policy. From the position of the approach, thescholars point out that administrative prejudice is a special relationship of criminal and administrativelaw, means of criminalization and decriminalization, means of preventing crimes, means of combatingcriminality, etc.