Mamotenko O. Criminal law methods of countering unlawful handling of goods in the sphere of excise taxation

The presented paper is a complex research of the problem areas in the legal regulation and practical application of criminal law methods of countering unlawful handling of goods in the sphere of excise taxation. The topicality of the work is determined by the fact that the practice of application of the article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is accompanied by a number of issues, caused by ambiguous interpretation of the mechanism of countering the manifestations of the criminal activity in general and the specified criminal act in particular, as well as of the methods of criminal law response within the scope of the specified mechanism. The subject of previous theoretical researches was related exclusively to criminal responsibility for this crime while, eventually, the findings of such researches have partially lost their significance due to considerable changes in tax and criminal legislation. The article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine does not contain a clear delineation of acts and methods of their execution. Purchase, distribution, storage, transportation of specific goods (part 1) and their production (part 2) are not separated acts, as generally interpreted, but rather serve as methods of execution of the same criminal act - unlawful handling of specific goods. The presented work provides characterization for each of these methods while such one as the production of goods similar to excisable goods is regarded as a backbone method which stipulates the existence of all other methods. The subject in elements of crimes under article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is a general one. Previous criminal record for similar offence (paragraph 2 of article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) does not transform the perpetrator into special subject. It is suggested to expand the scope of application of specified qualifying attribute by means of introducing amendments to the text of the law to include the reference to individuals who have the criminal record not only for this specific offence but also for other kindred offences. The basis for investigating criminal responsibility for unlawful handling of goods in the sphere of excise taxation as the main method of counteracting to this crime rests upon its official interpretation stated in the ruling of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine dated October 27th, 1999 in the case of parliamentary immunity. Two types of such responsibility, existing in Ukraine, are considered separately: 1) conviction with application of restrictions; 2) conviction without application of restrictions. The conclusive result of the research is represented by the suggestion to implement a revised version of the article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine that could be utilized to determine the methods of criminal law response to committing of the scrutinized criminal offence.