Proportionality of Restrictions on Rights and Freedoms as a Condition for the Constitutionality of Punishment

Abstract

Problem statement. Criminal punishment is traditionally one of the most important means of legal influence on a person who has committed a crime that involves the application of significant restrictions on their rights and freedoms. This circumstance makes it necessary to constantly monitor the system of punishments and the rules for their application for compliance with the constitutional standards for regulating criminal law relations. Meanwhile, this problem, and in particular, the problem of circumscribing the proportionality of legal restrictions in criminal law to the grounds for their application, is clearly given insufficient attention in Russian science. Goals and objectives of the study. At the moment, a comprehensive analysis of the legal positions of the constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European court of human rights in terms of determining the grounds and limits of criminal law restrictions on human rights, and a comparison of the developed humanitarian rules for the practice of designing and applying the system of punishments in criminal legislation is necessary. Methods. The paper uses traditional methods of legal research-generalization and analysis of judicial practice, dogmatic analysis of criminal law norms, humanitarian and constitutional expertise of criminal law norms. Results, brief conclusions. According to the constitutional standards of criminal law regulation, the state has the right to determine the types and content of criminal penalties relatively arbitrarily, as well as to set their size in the sanctions of certain criminal law norms. In this regard, the legislator has broad discretion. Meanwhile, strict conditions for the constitutional legitimacy of punishments include: prohibition of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments; restriction of punitive influence on the person who committed the crime, exclusively within the framework of criminal liability; differentiation of criminal punishment and rules of its appointment; proportionality of the established and appointed punishment to the grounds for applying criminal liability measures and its ability to ensure the achievement of the goals of criminal law impact.