Conditional Early Release from Serving a Sentence in the Decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation
Authors:   Russian State University of Justice (Moscow), Pudovochkin Yuri E. , Genrikh Natalia V. ,   North Caucasus Branch, Russian State University of Justice, Krasnodar, Russia
Published: December 2022

Problem statement. The leading role in the constitutionalization of criminal law regulations and the practice of their application is played by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which by its decisions determines the constitutional basis for the interpretation and application of criminal law norms. In the sphere of legal regulation of conditional early release from serving a criminal sentence, a significant amount of information has been accumulated to date, determining the initial principles and many particular aspects of the interpretation and application of criminal law norms. At the same time, it is not properly systematized and analyzed in modern science. This makes it necessary to generalize the practice of the Constitutional Court and systematize the presentation of its positions that determine the constitutionally significant content of the institution of parole from serving a sentence. Aims and objectives of the study: to generalize, systematize and analyze the positions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the problems of constructing and applying criminal law norms regulating the grounds for parole from serving a sentence, to determine on their basis possible prospects for improving criminal and procedural legislation. Methods: the basis of the study of judicial practice is the classical methodological principles of complexity, comprehensiveness, complementarity. The review is based on a solid documentary study of the materials of 67 rulings of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. Results, brief conclusions. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation legitimizes the institution of conditional early release from serving a sentence, taking into account the fact that the court’s decision on conditional early release from punishment must be fair, lawful, motivated, based on a comprehensive analysis and consideration of a holistic set of circumstances characterizing the behavior of the convicted person and his personality, based on which one can confidently assume that in the interests of observing the principles of justice and humanism, the convicted person does not need to continue serving the sentence imposed on him by the court verdict, despite the fact that none of these circumstances has a predetermined meaning and in itself does not predetermine the final conclusions of the court. Based on the content of appeals to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, it can be argued that the prospects for possible optimization of the institution of conditional early release from serving a sentence may be related to the resolution of the following issues: on the adoption of an independent judicial decision on the cancellation of conditional early release; on the possibility of cancellation of conditional early release in connection with the positive behavior of the convicted person and the removal from he has a criminal record; on clarifying the nature of the period during which a person is in prison until the entry into force of a court decision on parole; on the possibility of independent consideration of the issue of parole from serving an additional sentence.