Criminal law protecting the nature reserve fund (the objective side of the composition of the criminal offense provided for in Part 1 of Article 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)

The article is devoted to the study of the elements of the objective side of unqualified intentional destruction or damage of territories taken under state protection and objects of the nature reserve fund. Analysis of this element of the composition of the criminal offense provided for in Part 1 of Art. 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, has been carried out, while taking into account the achievements of criminal and environmental law sciences, provisions of regulatory legislation and materials of court practice. The dominant approach is supported, within which the territories protected by the state and the objects of the nature reserve fund are recognized as the subject, and not the place of the commission of the analyzed criminal offense against the environment. Emphasis is placed on the blanket disposition of Part 1 of Art. 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the need to specify the charges based on this circumstance. The meaning of the concepts of destruction and damage of the territories taken under the protection of the state and objects of the nature reserve fund is revealed; the differences between these concepts are clarified; it is shown how in court practice the elements of a socially dangerous act, indicated in part 1 of Article 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine are interpreted alternatively. A scientific proposal has been made to differentiate (in order to improve Article 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) criminal liability for violation of the regime of territories and objects of the nature reserve fund, as well as other key territories of the ecological network of Ukraine, as a result of which the reduction or loss of their special environmental protection has been made, was subjected to critical analysis. At the same time, the perspective of revealing the content of the socially dangerous consequences of the tort under consideration by referring to the concepts of reduction or loss by specific territories (objects) of their special environmental value was noted. The expediency of clarifying part 2 of Art. 252 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, by taking into account the fact that the destruction or damage of territories and objects, especially those protected by the state, may take the form of inaction, has been pointed out.