The content and scope of the concept of «corruption criminal offense» in the criminal law of Ukraine

Abstract

The article states that both in the doctrine of criminal law and in law enforcement practice, there are still unresolved problems related to the content and scope of the concept of «corruption criminal offense». After the introduction of the concept of corruption crime into the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the footnote to Art. 45 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, scientific discussions have changed their emphasis on the analysis of the validity of the definition of the relevant concept in the form of an exhaustive list of crimes belonging to the elements of corruption; concentrated on the list itself, defined by the legislator, on its addition or, on the contrary, reduction. The purpose of this article was to generalize scientific positions regarding the content and scope of the concept of corruption criminal offense and to define on this basis the author’s definition of the corresponding concept.
It has been established that the main vectors to which the scientific results of the studies covered in the special literature are aimed are three: 1) addition, expansion of the list defined in the footnote to Art. 45 of the list of corruption criminal offenses; 2) reduction, narrowing of such a list. The list of corruption criminal offenses, and it acts in this case as the scope of the concept of «corruption criminal offense», directly depends on the content of this concept. In this context, attempts to define the concept of corruption criminal offense using a certain set of features that characterize the two concepts that meaningfully make it up: «corruption» and «criminal offense» seem productive. Both of these concepts are normatively defined: the Law of Ukraine «On Prevention of Corruption» and Art. 11 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine contain relevant definitions.
The article proposes to leave in the definition a list of «unconditionally corrupt» criminal offenses, the constitutive features of which are signs of corruption offenses: abuse of official position in the broad sense and the presence of unlawful gain as the purpose, object or means of committing the offense. Article should be excluded from the current version of such a list. 210 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, this will not mean that an act that falls under this criminal law prohibition cannot be corrupt. It should be considered in the context of the second group of encroachments - corruption «under condition». When formulating the definition of this group, it seems worth abandoning an exhaustive list, indicating in the normative provision the signs of the actual composition of the encroachment.