Revisiting the object of crimes related to illegal logging

Volume 3, Number 3, 2018, P. 13–19

[ JURIDICAL SCIENCES ]

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Abstract:

The article considers the issue of the object of crimes related to illegal logging. In the legislation in power, the elements of this crime are covered in Chapter 26 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Environmental crimes) of Section IX devoted to the crimes against public safety and order. Having analyzed the constitutional propositions of the Russian Federation that consider natural resources as the basis of the life and activity of the peoples inhabiting the territory concerned, the authors conclude that labeling the acts in question as environmental crimes does not correspond to their real focus. The authors note that the object of a crime is determined by the nature of the legal relations entrenched by a particular crime. As for illegal logging, this crime primarily encroaches on the right of the state to dispose natural resources and has the goal of misappropriation of forest resources by a guilty person. As a rule, they are further involved in commercial circulation for illegal enrichment. Ultimately, all similar crimes are aimed anyway at infliction of economic loss of the Russian state. Consequently, the main object of encroachment in the illegal logging is the economic basis of the Russian Federation, its forest heritage and the right to dispose it for the benefit of the population. Since illegal logging violates the existing ecological system, social relations related to the protection of the environment and ecology are an additional object of the designated crime. Crimes aimed at appropriating natural resources to which illegal logging belongs intrinsically should be considered as crimes in the economic sphere encroaching on the economic foundation of the Russian Federation. Therefore, such crimes should be placed in section VIII of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Crimes in the economic sphere”.

Keywords:

object of a crime, crimes in the economic sphere, environmental crimes, illegal logging, categories of crimes, punishment

Authors:

Vladimir G. Tatarnikov, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor of Criminal Law Department of Russian State University of Justice, Irkutsk, Russia

Yurii P. Nikitin, a Lecturer of Special Training Department of the East Siberian Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Irkutsk, Russia

For citation:

Tatarnikov V.G. Nikitin Yu.P. Revisiting the object of crimes related to illegal logging. Sotsial’naya kompetentnost’ = Social Competence. 2018;3(3):13–19. (In Russ.).

References:

  1. The Constitution of the Russian Federation (adopted at national voting on December 12, 1993). Sobranie zakonodatel’stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation], 2014, no. 31, art. 4398. (In Russian).
  2. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of June 13, 1996 No. 63-FL. Sobranie zakonodatel’stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation], 1996, no. 25, art. 2954. (In Russian).
  3. Federal Law “On Environmental Protection” of December 20, 2001 No. 7-FL. Sobranie zakonodatel’stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation], 2002, no. 2, art. 133. (In Russian).
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