A Court Fine Is a Good Idea, a Bad Decision

Introduction: since its introduction, the institution of a court fine, despite certain fluctuations, has shown a consistently high degree of demand both from persons who have committed offenses of low-to-medium severity for the first time, due to its humanistic nature, and from preliminary investigation bodies and judges due to the relative simplicity of its procedure. Against this background, numerous flaws in the legislative techniques, contradictions, and other shortcomings of the legal norms contained in Federal Law No. 323 of July 3, 2016 are particularly noticeable, which do not correspond to the task of creating an effective and simple mechanism for exemption from criminal liability using a criminal law measure. The purpose of the paper is to systematize the shortcomings of the legal regulation of the procedure for deciding on the termination of a criminal case with the imposition of a court fine and formulate proposals aimed at increasing the practical expediency of the procedural form. Methods: the main research method aimed at achieving this goal is a comprehensive comparative-legal analysis of the norms of criminal procedural law that form the institution of a court fine. As a result of the study, the conclusion is substantiated that the CPC of the Russian Federation has unused opportunities for exemption from criminal liability with the application of a court fine in a judicial procedure, including in a special form (Chapter 40 of the CPC of the Russian Federation) at the request of the accused at the end of the preliminary investigation. The use of this proven mechanism guarantees the observance of the rights of the accused and the principles of criminal procedure and does not require additional legal regulation.