LEGAL NATURE OF THE RELIEF FROM LEGAL LIABILITY

The relief from legal liability as a theoretical and legal structure is poorly investigated. One of the controversial issues is the legal nature of the relief from legal liability; its analysis became the purpose of this paper. The author considered the relief from legal liability as one of the forms of implementation of positive legal responsibility, which is a possibility provided by law or agreement not to fulfill the offender’s obligation to suffer the adverse consequences in the case of violation of the law. Special attention was paid to the study of the relief from legal liability as a means of differentiation of legal responsibility. Based on the doctrinal developments, the author concluded that the relief from legal liability is a legal means of differentiation of legal responsibility of the second level, i.e. intra-industry, the result of which is the process of individualization of legal liability. When considering the relief from legal liability as a special form of legal incentive, the author notes that this institution is protected by the incentive rules of legal liability that approve and encourage the behavior of a person committed an offense without legal liability application. The paper conducted the analysis of delimitation of the relief from legal liability from the circumstances excluding legal liability for acts that are not illegal by virtue of express reference by the law and are recognized as socially useful. According to the results of the study, the author concludes that by its legal nature the relief from legal liability is one of the forms of implementation of positive legal responsibility, a means of differentiation of legal responsibility and a form of legal incentive.