Criminal law characteristic of intentional destruction or damage to property

Abstract

The article is devoted to the disclosure of the features of criminal liability for intentional destructionor damage to property provided for in Art. 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The elements of this composition of the criminal offense, which are necessary for criminal qualification according to the specified article of the law on criminal liability, have been analyzed. The author reveals the problematic issues of qualification of the qualifying features of intentional destruction or damage to property, namely, the commission of this crime by arson, explosion, or other generally dangerous means, which caused property damage on a particularly large scale, or caused death or other serious consequences. The author emphasizes the peculiarities of qualification of intentional destruction or damage to property, the difference between this crime and related crimes, in particular, violence against the population in the area of hostilities, violation of the laws and customs of war under martial law. This made it possible to conclude that the intentional destruction or damage to other people’s property committed by arson or explosion as a result of an act of aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine is qualified as a war crime under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and the unlawful intentional destruction or damage to the property of the population by a serviceman under the pretext of military necessity committed in the area of hostilities should be qualified under Article 433 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The author expresses the author’s position regarding the imperfect legal technique in formulating the provisions of Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in terms of determining the qualifying features of the crime of intentional damage or destruction of property. In this regard, the article provides arguments based on the study of case law relating to intentional damage or destruction of property. The author proposes to amend the current Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, namely, in order to make intentional destruction or damage to property in a generally dangerous manner without appropriate dimensions a ground for bringing a person to criminal liability, this qualifying feature should be allocated to a separate part 2 of Article 194 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.