Legal remedies against amber abuse: problems of implementation and optimization

The article is devoted to the coverage of certain problems related to the use of criminal legal means against persons who commit the crimes provided for in Art. 2401 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine illegal extraction, sale, acquisition, transfer, forwarding, transportation, processing of amber, and with the improvement of such means. Emphasis is placed on the study of relevant judicial practice. The provision on the need to differentiate criminal responsibility for illegal actions with amber depending on group forms of complicity is argued. It is proved that the proposed improvement of Art. 2401 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine will be consistent with the requirements established in jurisprudence for the construction of qualified compositions of criminal offenses. The theoretical position is supported, according to which, if the relevant composition of the criminal offense does not include such features as its commission by a group of persons and an organized group, then the qualification of the offense committed by the organizer and members of the group should be carried out with a reference in the qualification formula to part 2 or part 3 st. 28 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with the inclusion in the legal wording of the indictment of the characteristics «committed by a prior conspiracy by a group» or «committed by an organized group.» Based on the study of judicial practice materials, it has been established that the exemption of persons who commit the analyzed crime from serving a sentence is widespread (Article 75 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), and the imperfection of the sanctions of Article 2401 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, considerations were expressed regarding their optimization, namely the consolidation in Part 1 of Art. 2401 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine provides for a fine as the non-alternative main punishment, and in Part 2 and Part 3 of this article - alternative punishments in the form of a fine and imprisonment for a certain period. The imperfection of judicial practice related to ensuring the individualization of criminal responsibility for «amber» torts has been demonstrated - the imposition of a fine as the main type of punishment in the minimum amount and failure to take into account the role, nature and degree of participation of each of the accomplices in the commission of a criminal offense.