Criteria Determining the Moments of the Beginning and End of the State of Necessary Defense

The relevance of the study of the issues of legislative establishment and law enforcement of necessary defense is due to the fact that the state, ensuring the implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to protect their rights and freedoms by all legal means, providing such an opportunity, requires its citizens to fulfill the necessary conditions, failure to comply with which will be considered a crime. Failure to comply with the legitimate requirements of the state to comply with the limits of necessary defense entails bringing the defending person to criminal responsibility, and therefore, the person who defended his rights and interests becomes the person who committed the crime. The subjectivity of the definition of «exceeding the limits of necessary defense», the problems that appear in judicial practice when recognizing the behavior of the defender as lawful, the cancellation of judicial acts on the legality of the actions of the defender—all these points require finding solutions to the issues raised, solving the problem of criminal law assessment of the legality of the necessary defense. Despite the centuries-old history of the institute of necessary defense and the vast experience of its application, law enforcement officers have great difficulties in practice when assessing the legality of the behavior of the defender.