Statutes of Limitations on Bringing to Administrative Responsibility and the Procedure for their Calculation in the Context of Constitutional Law Principles

The initial version of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences provided for a general statute of limitations (two months) and a special statute of limitations (one year from the date of the commission of an administrative offense) for administrative liability. As a result of multiple amendments to part 1 of Art. 4.5 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, the special terms were increased to two, three and six years depending on the type of an administrative offense. In addition, initially part 4 of Art. 4.5 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation established a special procedure for calculating the statute of limitations for bringing to administrative responsibility in case of refusal to initiate criminal proceedings or dismissal of the case. The statute of limitation commenced from the date when the decision was made to refuse to initiate proceedings or to dismiss the case. Although the provision under consideration was later brought into line with the general rule, the legislator considered it necessary to supplement Art. 4.5 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation with parts 5.1, 6, 6.1 and 7, linking the beginning of the statute of limitations for administrative liability for certain administrative offenses with certain legal facts. As a result of the study, the author has revealed the discrepancy between the mentioned legislative innovations and the constitutional principle of proportionality of restrictions imposed by the legislator on the rights and freedoms and the principle of legal certainty. The author makes a proposal to improve the current legal regulation of the statute of limitations with regard to bringing to administrative responsibility and the procedure for their calculation.

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