On the Issue of the Legal Assessment of the Socially Dangerous Consequences of Environmental Crimes

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Qualification of environmental crimes evokes a lot of difficulties. For example, in practice, there are no uniform criteria for the legal assessment of their socially dangerous consequences. The criminal law has many evaluative categories that the legislator uses in the law as similar or identical terms to characterize different legal structures. But the success of counteracting acts that violate the lawful order of protecting the environment and using natural resources depends on an accurate understanding of these structures. Therefore, a complex, comprehensive study of the legal properties of socially dangerous consequences of environmental crimes is necessary. The purpose of this research is to study the legal nature of the socially dangerous consequences of environmental crimes, to systematize and develop legal positions for their assessment in law enforcement practice. The research methodology is based on a theoretical analysis of the main scientific provisions on the elements of a crime, for example, socially dangerous consequences. The informational and empirical basis of the study is the legal positions formulated by the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the qualification of environmental crimes, as well as materials of the judicial and investigative practice of law enforcement agencies. The object of observation is socially dangerous consequences as a logical and legal category from the standpoint of theoretical and legal regulation and law enforcement activities. Scientific novelty lies in the formation of the author's understanding and classification of the socially dangerous consequences of environmental crimes, proposals for the legal assessment of specific consequences in the aspect of de lege lata, as well as the improvement of criminal legislation in the aspect of de lege ferenda. This scientific study showed the need for an integrated approach in the legal regulation and interpretation of the socially dangerous consequences of environmental crimes.