The procedure for bringing to administrative responsibility. Statute of limitations of administrative liability

The issue regarding administrative offenses and responsibility for them is very relevant, not only in terms of its application to legal entities and officials, but also to ordinary citizens. It is enough to give an example that now almost everyone is the owner of a car, and after all, a significant proportion of administrative offenses concerns precisely the observance of traffic rules on the road.

This is one of the reasons why it is worth paying attention to the question of what administrative responsibility and what sanctions are provided for violation of the provisions of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. As you know, ignorance of the law is not an excuse. Civil and administrative responsibility is something that we face almost daily. Particular attention should be paid to such a concept as the limitation of administrative responsibility; deadlines always play an important and sometimes crucial role.

The concept of administrative responsibility and its main features

Before talking about the procedural deadlines, penalties and other sanctions, it is necessary to understand the essence of administrative responsibility. It consists in the fact that bodies or officials apply administrative punishment in relation to a person who has committed an offense. She has the characteristics that are characteristic of legal liability in general. But, in addition, it has specific, special features:

1. The procedure for bringing to administrative responsibility, as a rule, for the most part is extrajudicial in nature, that is, the punishment is imposed by persons holding positions in government bodies of the executive branch of power of the Russian Federation.
2. Punishment of offenders is imposed by officials for whom they are not subordinate. This is the difference between administrative responsibility and disciplinary responsibility. Since with the latter, the offender, as a rule, is directly subordinate to the official who imposes penalties.
3. Holding administratively liable does not lead to a criminal record for a person who has decided to commit an unlawful act.
4. An essential feature is that not only individuals but also legal entities can be involved.
5. Bringing to administrative responsibility occurs for acts that are not as dangerous as crimes. For example, offenses that infringe on sanitary epidemiological standards regarding the well-being of the population and its health, as well as in the field of road safety, construction, etc. Consequently, the punishments are less severe than for criminal offenses.
6. The administrative liability of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation and the Federal laws of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, which are adopted in accordance with it, is established.

Administrative offense: what is it?

Administrative violation and administrative responsibility are two closely related concepts. The first invariably is the basis for the second and entails its offensive. In the scientific literature, an administrative offense is understood to mean the action (guilty omission) of legal entities and individuals that is unlawful and for which the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation or laws adopted by its subjects establish administrative responsibility.

As you know, action and inaction are two sides of an unlawful act. The first is understood as an active, deliberate violation of the established norm or failure to fulfill any obligation prescribed in the law of the Russian Federation requirements. Inaction implies indifference, non-fulfillment of the duties assigned to the person.

For example, the following situation: an organization or individual entrepreneur opens a bank account. But does not present a certificate of registration with the tax office. This is a violation of the law by a bank official as provided for in Articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (15.7).

Signs of an unlawful administrative act

In total, it is customary to distinguish three signs:

• unlawfulness of an act, by which is meant a compulsory violation of a rule of law;
• guilty, this sign presupposes the presence of intent or negligence in the commission of an unlawful act; in the first case, the person understands and realizes the nature of their actions that are contrary to the law and anticipates the onset of harmful consequences and wants to either consciously allow them, or is indifferent to what is happening (for example, the driver’s passage to a red light); in case of negligence, a person realizes the possibility of socially dangerous consequences, but naively and arrogantly counts on their prevention; intent can be direct or indirect, the most elementary example in the first case is the misuse of funds from the budget;
• the offense is punishable by the fact that administrative responsibility is provided and established by the laws of the subjects of Russia or the Code of Administrative Offenses for a committed unlawful act.

Composition of an administrative offense

This term refers to a combination of features, the presence of which characterizes a specific act as an administrative offense. And administrative responsibility for it is provided for by the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. Homogeneous features of the composition form its elements. These include:

1. The object is always public relations, regulated exclusively by the rules of law, not only administrative, but also environmental, financial, tax, labor, land and other industries, administrative responsibility comes for their violation.
2. The objective side is expressed in a system of signs provided by the rules of law that determine the external manifestation of offenses (action or inaction and dangerous consequences that have occurred). For example, a driver’s violation of traffic rules can be expressed in various acts: speeding, overtaking, driving on a prohibiting red light, etc. In this case, there may be consequences dangerous to society, for example, the formation of an emergency on the road, the commission of a traffic accident, a threat to other drivers.
3. A subject is a legal or natural person who is sane and has reached sixteen years of age. It is from this age that it is permissible to bring a person to administrative responsibility. The subject can be general (any person) or special, for example, a driver, officials and special - military personnel. For different categories of this element of the offense, different sanctions may be provided for under the same article of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation. The situation with the military serves as a direct example, in most cases they do not bear administrative responsibility on a common basis.
4. The subjective side characterizes the person’s perception of the wrongful act committed by him and its consequences. A mandatory feature of this element of the composition is the presence of guilt, which may be in the form of intent or through negligence. The various compositions of administrative offenses are characterized by optional features of the subjective side, they include the motive and purpose. The first term refers to what pushes a person to commit an offense. And the goal is his idea of ​​the final desired result, to which he strove.

The elements of the composition of the unlawful act are the same regardless of what responsibility (administrative, criminal) is provided.

The concept and varieties of administrative punishments

Administrative punishment is a measure of responsibility established by the state for committing an offense prescribed in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and used to prevent the commission of new violations.

At the moment, the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation approves such types of punishments as:

• a warning, in other words, a formal censure in writing;
• administrative fine (the most common measure, which is provided for most of the articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation and, as practice shows, the most effective);
• confiscation (or forfeiture of seizure) of the instrument or the subject of the offense;
• deprivation of the right that was specifically granted to individuals;
• administrative arrest;
• expulsion of a citizen of a foreign state or a person who does not have citizenship outside the Russian Federation;
• disqualification;
• administrative suspension of activities.

The imposition of most of these penalties is the exclusive jurisdiction of the judges.

Statute of limitations

This issue provides for domestic legislation, it refers to the issuance of a resolution on cases of an administrative offense, for which a period of not more than two months is given, calculated from the moment of its commission. This is the general procedure for bringing to administrative responsibility. But, as you know, each rule has exceptions, all of them are indicated in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, part one of Article 4.5. For example, this is a violation of the law on copyright and related rights, on inland sea waters, on the exclusive economic zone and others, the limitation period for bringing them to administrative responsibility for them is one year.

Only one case is allowed in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation when this period can be suspended. This is a situation where a person whose proceedings are ongoing file a petition (in writing) to consider the case directly at his place of residence and the authorized bodies satisfy him. The term shall be suspended from the moment when a decision is made to satisfy the application and until the time the materials on the case are received by a judge, an official authorized to consider these materials. Thus, the time for sending documents is not a limitation of administrative responsibility

Exemption from Administrative Responsibility

This situation is possible in three cases:

1. The insignificance of the act is one of the main factors in the removal of administrative responsibility. Signs of the subjective and objective side, mitigating and aggravating circumstances, are taken into account. This issue is decided by the official, body or judge who is authorized to consider this case. They can make a verbal comment that does not entail legal consequences.
2. The second option is to replace another type of punishment, for example, disciplinary liability.
3. Other grounds. In particular, if the offense is committed by a person from the age of sixteen to the age of majority, a special commission may decide on exemption from administrative responsibility and resort to measures of influence provided for by federal legislation protecting the rights of minors.

The procedure for bringing to administrative responsibility: procedural terms

The issue of procedural timelines is of particular importance and importance. Every citizen should be aware of this and remember, as well as the statute of limitations of administrative responsibility, all the more so since in practice, practically everyone encounters articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.

The first thing you need to know is that within three days the protocol drawn up on the commission of an administrative offense must be passed on to the person or bodies authorized to consider it, as stated in the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (Article 28.8). If any errors are found in it, then a period of no more than 72 hours is given for their elimination.

After considering the issue, a decision is made. The authorized bodies are given up to 2 months for consideration of the case, and up to three for the judge. The decision is announced immediately.

It must be sent to the one who drew up the protocol, no later than three days from the date of removal.

It is important to remember that the decision to impose administrative punishment is not executed if it has not been done within two years.

Appeal against a decision on an administrative offense

Very often, especially in cases concerning traffic and the rules for its violation, court decisions are appealed. If it is made by a judge, then the complaint must be written to a higher court. It indicates full data (name, address of registration and actual residence, phone number). They further describe the current situation, explaining in detail the reasons for disagreeing with the decision and referring to Art. 30.1-30.8 Administrative Code ask him to cancel. The complaint should be accompanied by evidence supporting all the circumstances described. The deadline is ten days. If it is missed, then if there are good reasons (illness, difficult life situation), you can write a petition for its restoration. The complaint must be reviewed within 10 days.

Legal and public officials: administrative prosecution

The procedure for bringing to administrative responsibility is regulated by the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the norms of which establish a very significant number of offenses and the responsibility for their commission, which lies with legal entities. In mathematical terms, this figure is 58% of the total number of articles in the Special Part of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Holding administratively liable can entail the imposition of penalties, which can reach a fairly impressive amount, the confiscation of the instrument that committed the offense, suspension for up to 90 days of activity. The Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation says that a legal entity will be found guilty of an administrative offense if it is established that it had the opportunity to comply with the norms and rules established by law, but all measures depending on it were not taken to comply with them.

In addition, the legislation separately states the administrative responsibility of officials whose involvement is carried out in the event of an offense due to improper performance or simply non-performance of official duties. Under the officials are persons who are authorized by the state to perform the function of government representatives (permanently or on a temporary basis). To them, according to the law, are citizens who are engaged in entrepreneurial activity, but not registered as a legal entity. Administrative violations and administrative liability of officials are provided for in more than 2/3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (Special Part).