SUBJECTIVE FACTORS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF JUDICIAL DISCRETION

The article touches upon the problems of ensuring objective and balanced judicial decision-making in criminal cases and cases of administrative offenses. The authors state the thesis about the existence of factors in the administration of justice that do not directly stem from regulatory legal acts, but have an impact on the process and results of the court’s law enforcement activities, including the punishment imposed in these cases. The article attempts to identify these factors, describe their subjective nature, the reasons for their influence on the results of the administration of justice, and substantiate their significance in the mechanism of decision-making by the court. The authors give examples of subjective factors influencing decisions, touch upon the psychological aspects of the formation of the judge’s personality as a person and a professional law enforcement officer, as well as the decision-making by judges on specific cases, the issues of the influence of the judge’s gender identity on the punishment imposed. In the course of the study, a conclusion is formulated about the actual irrational increase in the burden on judges by some legislative innovations, confirmed by the official statistics of the Judicial Department at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Such changes, and, as a consequence, the excessive amount of work of district judges, strengthen the influence of subjective factors on the decisions made by judges, increase the share of subjectivity in the structure of judicial discretion due to the administration of justice in a state of lack of time, the actual lack of opportunity for judges to thoroughly consider the circumstances of each case. The authors substantiate the position on the need to take measures that do not require financial costs but contribute to reducing the degree of influence of subjective factors on decisions made by judges, a list of such measures is provided.

judicial discretion, subjective factors, sentencing, judicial decision-making, non-legal factors, judicial burden, personality of the judge, behavior of the defendant, perception of the case by the judge, announcement of the verdict, optimization of the administration of justice

Vasilev Yu. A., Vasileva N. V. Subjective factors in the implementation of judicial discretion. Business. Education. Law, 2022, no. 3, pp. 222—227. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2022.60.321.