Correctional labor as an alternative to imprisonment in modern problems of punishment assignment

The global practice has shown many times that the primary means of struggling with criminality over the entire history of the civilized society is punishment. The modern legislator is constantly striving to improve its types by following global trends in its regulation, assignment and use. Efficiency of labor influence over the convict makes us pay a special attention to punishments suggesting mandatory labor nurturing. One of such punishments is correctional labor whose relevance of research is caused by the interest of the international society to use measures alternative to imprisonment. Despite the fact that legal systems of some foreign countries envisage and widely use punishments whose various characteristics are similar to domestic correctional labor, the Russian experience of their regulation and use can be useful, due to their specific nature, and interesting to any modern state, because the issue of implementing a rich potential of penology is especially relevant these days. At the same time there are significant issues in assignment of correctional labor, which area caused by imperfect construction of law. Research purpose is to study urgent issues of assigning correctional labor as an alternative to imprisonment in the Russian legal system. Methods: the analysis method allowed for characterization of specific features of assigning criminal punishment in the form of correctional labor and revealing primary problems in this area. The comparative method was used to collate specifics of correctional labor and probation. The prediction method helped defining perspectives to eliminate the identified disadvantages. An alternative mode of correctional labor has been criticized; measures have been offered to improve the legislative regulation of correctional labor within Article 53.1 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code

Public authorities as an object of modern historical and legal research

The purpose of the study is to analyze the views of theoretical scientists on the concept of public authorities and the place of local self-government bodies in the system of public authorities, based on well-established concepts, doctrines, and ideas developed in modern realities. To achieve the stated goals and objectives in scientific work, general scientific and specific scientific methods were used. The principles of objectivity and consistency, methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison made it possible to study the views of theoretical scientists, highlighting the argumentation that is significant for the research topic, based on facts, guided by the principles of reliability and impartiality, considering the topic in all its versatility and contradictoriness. The research is based on the theoretical works of Russian scientists studying various aspects of the multifaceted problem of public authorities as state institutions. The novelty of the research lies in the attempt to theoretically comprehend and scientifically analyze the concepts of public authority and public authorities based on the works of domestic authors, as well as to determine the positions of theoretical scientists in the place of local self-government bodies in the system of public authorities. The study made it possible to substantiate the rejection of the established stereotypes in the identification of the concepts of “public power” and “state power”, the reorientation of legal science towards the formation of the concept of state power as a variant of public power, the legal basis of which is the law. The paper also concludes the implementation of power relations through public authorities. At the same time, a lack of a unified approach to determining the place of local self-government bodies in the system of public authorities at present is indicated