Discretion in Law: General Concept, Trends, Prospects
The author examines discretion in law as an inter-sectoral phenomenon that manifests itself in all sectors of law without exception, yet with a consideration of the sectoral specifics. Discretion is legally permitted juridical freedom of participants of legal relations to execute their subjective rights, duties and prohibitions at their discretion, based on the autonomy of will of the latter entities and strictly within the legal limits. The attributive features of discretion include legal grounds, alternativeness and multivariate behavior, freedom of will, initiative of the participants of legal relations, and restrictions by the law and a number of extralegal factors.