This study contains a detailed analysis of the contraventional liability as a form of legal liability, including the use of the attribute „administrative” for the contraventional liability as a social-legal phenomenon. The material reveals the conceptions of the authors in the field of law and our separate opinion regarding the aspects of the contraventional liability and the relevance of the use of the terminological construction „administrative-contraventional liability”. Therefore, we analyzed the legal framework and the practice of the Republic of Moldova and other states, starting our research from the hypothesis that the contraventional liability is a distinct form of legal liability that occurs when an illegal act (contravention) has been committed, violating the rules of the contraventional law, for which contraventional sanctions are applied by the competent authorities, through a legally established procedure.