Classification of Environmental Crimes: Critical Analysis of the Criminal Legal Literature

The article is devoted to the problem of classification of environmental crimes The author notes that this issue is complicated by two factors. Firstly, only the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation highlights environmental crimes in a separate chapter, therefore, their division into groups is still far from being complete Secondly, the combination of such acts is not defined (in other words, they are only in the relevant chapter or embedded in the structure and other chapters, for example ecocide). In addition, the integration of environmental crimes is based on the mereological method of division, as their legislative regulation demand taxonomic approach The article shows typical shortcomings of the proposed classifications, including the lack of common grounds for the division of the whole aggregate of the relevant group According to the author, environmental crimes encroach upon ecological safety, which, in this case, is their specific object. Separation of the environmental safety as a species object is consistent with the essence of a generic object of the offence, for example public safety. This corresponds to the content of public safety covering environmental safety as a separate category. Therefore, all crimes, united in Ch. 26 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, taking into account their characteristics, violate some aspect (element) of ecological safety; harm the safety of nature as a whole or its individual components. Thus, all the acts can be grouped into two groups: 1) general offences against environmental safety; 2) special crimes infringing on ecological safety. The first group includes the acts referred to in Art. 246-249; the second-act under Art. 250-262 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

environmental crime, public safety, environmental safety, environment, component, classification, reason, mereology, taxonomy, meaning

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