DECLINE OF SEVERITY OF SANCTIONS AS A TREND OF DEVELOPMENT OF LAW

Abstract

The article contains analysis of public enforcement measures for violations of law in historical context. The author makes the following conclusions: (1) in the law, one can find that severity of the public enforcement declines as the society develops; (2) repressive sanctions that play the key role on some stages give way to less severe ones (capital punishment - imprisonment - fine); (3) the process goes gradually by testing less repressive sanctions as, for a start, an alternative sanctions; (4) in agrarian society, the capital punishment is a primary measure of the public enforcement; (5) in industrial society the imprisonment takes the key role in the public enforcement; (6) the penitentiary system that deals with application of public enforcement to delinquents directly depends on political regime and is a precise indicator of society development in a particular country.