Smuggling or violation of customs rules: actual questions of application of administrative and criminal liability

Abstract

The article deals with the peculiarities of the application of legal liability for commercial contraband in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine. In particular, the authors of the article investigate the feasibility of criminalization of the smuggling of a wide range of goods, and not only withdrawn from the circulation of things and forests, as recorded in the Criminal Code of Ukraine at this moment. In addition to a thorough analysis of the current legislation of Ukraine, the authors carried out a comparative analysis of Ukrainian legislation with the legislation of foreign countries, which helped to objectively assess the state of the studied issues in Ukraine. The methodology of the study includes general scientific methods, among which the methods of analysis and synthesis should be noted, as well as special-legal methods, among which it is necessary to distinguish system-functional, and comparative methods. As a result of the study, the authors concluded that the criminalization of commercial smuggling (in connection with additional corruption risks and an increase in law enforcement agencies) is inappropriate. Thus, it is proposed to leave the current legislation of Ukraine in the investigational sphere in the current state and do not make any changes to it.