Smuggling “in the new way” or analysis of the latest legislative changes

Abstract

The article examines the changes made to the CC by the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the criminalization of smuggling of goods and excise goods, as well as false declaration of goods” dated 09.12.2023 № 3513-IX. It not only brought back criminal responsibility for smuggling of goods as an independent component of the crime, also made several other changes to Chapter VII of the Special Part of the CC. The purpose of this article is to analyze the legislative amendments regarding the recriminalization of smuggling of goods, excise goods and to develop a proposal for further improvement of the provisions of Art. 201, 201-1, 201-3 and 201-4 of the CC.
 The analysis of the novels made it possible to establish that, on the one hand, the recriminalization of the smuggling of goods is a rather successful decision of the legislator, since for a long time it was an urgent need that both scientists and practitioners talked about. On the other hand, the adoption of Law № 3513-IX, first of all, violated the system of norms located in Chapter VII of the Special Part of the CC. It seems that in Art. 201 of the CC should establish criminal liability for smuggling of goods, while in Art. 201-1 of the CC should provide for criminal liability for the smuggling of goods that have specific conditions for their export/import (excise goods, timber or lumber of valuable and rare tree species, unprocessed timber), as well as items that are prohibited to be exported from Ukraine (cultural values, other timber that is prohibited for export outside the customs territory of Ukraine). Provisions on the smuggling of other items should be fixed in Chapter IX or XIII of the Special Part of the CC of Ukraine. It is not possible to agree with the minimum amount of contraband goods established by the legislator, which is related to their total value. The sanction for smuggling goods is subject to criticism, as it does not take into account the requirements of Part 2 of Article 53 of the CC. There is also a question regarding the final punishment in cases of smuggling of goods and other items provided for in Art. 201, 201-1 and 201-4 of the CC. It is also appropriate to exclude points 1 and 2 of the footnote to Art. 201 of the CC, which provides definitions of methods of committing the smuggling of any items.