Abstract: The subject of this research is the validity and conditionality of criminal legislation prohibitions, elements of offences, norms of criminal law, and other criminal law and criminal legislation constructs; theory of criminalization and penalization; criminal law-making theory; and legal argumentation. The article is dedicated to comprehension and interpretation of criminal law terminology (validity of the construct, conditionality of the construct, social conditionality of the construct, effectiveness of law enforcement, and other). This comprehension is educed from the extensive context of criminal law literature; the definition of terms is conducted in accordance with the theoretical-legal and criminal-legal understanding of stages and elements of the mechanism of legal regulation. Reference to the context of criminal law literature along with consideration of the logical-philosophical, theoretical-legal and criminal-legal perspective allowed presenting an original view on the subject matter, as well as propose grounds for validating and conditioning the construct. The obtained results may be applies in legislative and expert activity.