Sanction is an adverse effect, a measure of impact and a form of authorization

Sanction is a definition used to determine the essence of various legal situations.

First, this term denotes one of the elements of the legal norm. Thus, the hypothesis is understood as the conditions for applying the prescription, the disposition describes the behavior of the subject, and the sanction is a kind of adverse consequences arising as a result of the individual performing certain actions.

The criminal law theory contains classification according to the degree of certainty. Issue the following types of sanctions:

• Absolutely certain. Norms containing punishment in this form, today there is no law. This is due to the difference in socially dangerous consequences, their nature, and also some aspects of the subjective side. One and the same composition can be characteristic for crimes of different severity, therefore it is not reasonable and fair to introduce only one punishment for all criminal acts.
• Absolutely vague sanction. The existence of such norms opens the possibility for the authorities to perpetrate arbitrariness, providing a chance to punish the criminal for a particular act in all the severity of the law or to assign him an unreasonably mild punishment. That is why there are currently no such formulations in the law.
• A relatively definite sanction is today's criminal procedural reality. The legislator, as a rule, sets a certain type of punishment for the commission of a specific act, providing for its upper and lower limits.

The investigated part of the legal norm may or may not contain an alternative. In other words, the sanction of the legal norm provides for either one type of punishment, or several. For example, as punishment for a crime, a fine or imprisonment is allowed. In this case, the judge can be chosen the most appropriate sanction for a particular case. This allows you to differentiate the choice of punishment.

Being an element of the legal norm, sanction is simultaneously defined as a measure of the impact on the offender associated with adverse consequences.

So, in contractual legal relations, adverse consequences for the offender are classified according to the mode of occurrence. Sanctions, therefore, can be stipulated in an agreement or law.

Also distinguish restorative, suppressive and protective adverse effects. In the first case, there is a kind of legal restitution, in the second - stopping the continuation of illegal activity, in the third - the fulfillment of the obligation to the opponent (state, private person).

In addition, the term has another semantic connotation. Sanction is understood as permission, consent of an official with a specific decision or action. In criminal proceedings, this category is used to refer to the actions of the prosecutor. The latter may authorize (resolve) the inquiry, the investigative process or the taking of any decisions.