Social danger, culpability and punishability as indicia of oath-breaking

Abstract

The institution of oath is studied, the indicia of oath-breaking are characterized. It is emphasized that a violation of the law (anoffense) is not only a subjective guilty behavior, but also an internal psychological attitude, namely the offender’s negative attitudetowards legal requirements and protected interests. Guilt stipulates for the subject’s awareness of the meaning of his actions and theirconsequences, not only as factual circumstances, but also in the sense of their socially dangerous illegal nature. If there is no guilt, theremay not be any legal liability, and in this case, it may be a casus. It is noted that it is extremely difficult to determine the guilt in theoffense of oath-breaking, and in some cases, it is even impossible, because it is often a subjective assessment. This is also due to thenature of the work performed by civil servants. It is emphasized that the indicium of punishability allows making a clear distinctionbetween different types of offenses, as each of them entails responsibility of a different degree in case of its commission. Since the institutionof oath is within the scope of those social relations that are fundamental in the civil service, given the content of the oath, it isobvious that the social danger of oath-breaking is quite significant and harmful to the state and to people. As can be seen, this actinfringes on the foundations and organization of public power, civil service, human and civil rights and freedoms, and can lead to seriousviolations of certain aspects of functioning of the state, society, and any person. It is concluded that there are the characteristics ofdisciplinary case in oath-breaking, namely public harm, which harms the object of the oath. However, it is not possible to state unequi -vocally what degree of gravity or harmfulness is inherent in this case, as there is no division of disciplinary cases in the legislationaccording to the degree of social danger. Although this division can be made on the basis of liability (gravity of punishment) for a particulardisciplinary offense (for example, for some offenses the employee may get an admonition, and for others, he may receive a reprimand,and in case of re-offending he may be dismissed, although there are those offences the commitment of which immediately providesan opportunity to dismiss the offender from office and government agency).