Melnichenko V. Characterization by criminal law of the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules (Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)

This PhD thesis offers a comprehensive, complex and systematic scientific development of characterization by criminal law of the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules. Based on a scientific analysis of theoretical state and legislative regulation of this problem and the practice of application of existing legislation, important proposals for legal science have been provided and new provisions and conclusions have been formulated. The research has revealed the origins of criminal liability for the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules, which were traced to Article 163 of the 1960 Criminal Code of the Ukrainian S.S.R., and this study has encompassed the history of criminal liability for this crime and outlined the present state of this problem. This PhD thesis proposes the notion of crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules; ascertains the meaning of the following main factors of social-legal reasons for its prohibition: social-criminological, regulatory-legal, ethical, historical-cultural and international legal, which prove that the aforementioned provision must be preserved in the current legislation and outline further areas of its improvement; the generic and specific objects of the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules have been determined; the notion of the subject of examined crime (fish stock and wild aquatic animals) has been explained taking into account today’s achievements of Ukrainian and foreign science of criminal law; indispensable signs of objective side of the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules have been analyzed; the circle of persons who might be perpetrators of this crime has been ascertained; the signs of the subjects committing an act under Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine have been studied; the signs characterizing subjective side of the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules have been analyzed, and possible forms and types of guilt have been determined; a comprehensive analysis of the current Ukrainian legislation has been made by revealing essential features of particular crimes under Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine with banquet dispositions, which are important for the purposes of qualification under the above article and improvement of the said article; the crime under Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine was separated from the related crime of illegal fishing, animal hunting or other aquatic production, if it is committed using explosives, poisonous substances, electric current or other methods of mass destruction of fish, animals or other fauna species (Article 249 (2) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The author devoted proper attention to the difference in competition of norms and related crimes. A comparative legal characteristic of the crime of conducting blasting operations in violation of the fish stock protection rules under Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and similar crimes in certain foreign countries has been made. Proposals regarding improvement of provisions of Article 250 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the practice of their application have been formulated.