The authors of the article reveal the role of the principle of equity in development of legal rules in current Russian legislation. In the contents of criminal legislation the importance of proper depiction of processes taking place in our society initiates the necessity to take into account public legal awareness. The given approach makes it possible to create and develop law and institutions of criminal law according to the criteria of justice or injustice. It is the justice that is viewed as the criterion for evaluating the person’s attitude to the society and social values. Analysis of changes in criminal law from the standpoint of compliance with the principle of equity makes it possible to identify significant problems associated with emergence of criminal-legal rules which don’t comply with the essence of this principle. The purpose of the article is to study theoretical and practical problems of implementing the principle of equity in the criminal legislation of Russia.