Administrative offense as deterrent to prove objective aspect in criminal proceedings

The purpose of the article is to study administrative offense as a deterrent to proving the objective element in criminal proceedings. The research methodology includes the use of general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition: dialectical, epistemological, logical and semantic, system and structural, normative and dogmatic, monographic, legal modeling methods. Research results: The article examines the problems of co-existence of administrative and criminal offenses. The signs of delimitation of these illegal acts are determined, as well as difficulties in defining and differentiating between administrative and criminal offences are established, which creates legal gaps and conflicts. The problem of administrative offense as a deterrent to proving the objective element in criminal proceedings is described. Practical implications: The main obstacles to legal accountability related to the consideration of administrative offenses are identified. Value / originality: The ways to overcome the above problems are proposed.

Human trafficking and surrogate motherhood: challenges

Owing to modern scientific advances prospective parents, among other opportunities, enjoy the opportunity, which has not been available before. It consists in giving birth to a child by using another woman’s reproductive capacity when the situation seems hardly improvable. The paper examines surrogate motherhood as one of the reproductive methods through the prism of human trafficking. It aims at studying and differentiating such legal phenomena as the sale of human beings and surrogate motherhood, which is provided primarily on a paid-for basis, whose consequences (transferring irrevocably a child from one person to another), are externally similar. The comparative legal and formal legal methods have been employed to provide a general description of international experience in regulating surrogate motherhood. Examples of absolutely opposite ways of pursuing state policy on the legalization of this type of reproductive methods in foreign countries are suggested: from a complete ban to legislative approval and even further simplification of the applying procedure. It has been proved that there is no connection between acknowledgement of the legality of this procedure and the geographical location of states, the level of their economic development, the specifics of the legal system, and the like. It has been stated that none of the countries can be considered a universal example of solving these issues. Based on the example of Ukrainian legislation, the author suggests distinguishing between the objective aspect of selling human beings and surrogate motherhood, which is provided, first of all, for a fee. It is emphasized that due to the peculiarities of reproductive technologies only a child should be the object of trade, not a person’s gametes, zygote, embryo or fetus. When a child is sold, in view of the objective aspect, the child is illegally transferred from one person to another. In legal surrogate motherhood agreements the object of the agreement concluded between the surrogate mother and the future parents is not the child, but the service related to embryo implantation, pregnancy and childbirth, id est, a long process. Based on criminal law, there have been modelled the peculiarities of surrogate motherhood and its assessment used in determining the signs of human trafficking largely depending on genetic relationship between a child and customers (potential parents), as well as a child and a surrogate mother. The mental element making the distinction between surrogacy and the trafficking of newborns is described. It is emphasized that qualifying as «trafficking in human beings» necessitates the proof of direct intent to unlawfully «transfer» a child, primarily in return for a fee. It has been concluded that the legal regulation of surrogacy requires further improvement and consolidation at the legislative level. Investigators and prosecutors should investigate all the circumstances that were associated with the surrogacy methods applied in order to establish whether child trafficking occurred in each specific case.

Mediation in Bribery: Gaps in the Legal Interpretation

The article considers and analyzes some gaps in the legislative interpretation of Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It examines the objective aspect of the crime, and also presents the problems of prosecuting for mediation in bribery according to the specifics of the qualification of this socially dangerous act. The author substantiates the grounds and limits of criminal liability for mediation in bribery, taking into account the act of committing various forms of this crime. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of criminal legislation and scientific works of not only Russian scientists, but also foreign experts in the field of criminal law, the main prospects for the development and solution of the above mentioned problematic issues related to gaps in the legislative interpretation of Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are proposed. Special attention is also paid to certain issues of qualification of the investigated act, which directly depend on the amount of the bribe. As a result of the study, it is recommended to introduce some changes and additions to Parts 1 and 5 of Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

SET OF FACTS OF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFENCE FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT OR THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF UKRAINE

The article is focused on the analysis of set of facts of an administrative offense for contempt of court or the Constitutional Court of Ukraine under the Art. 185-3 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. The author has revealed the content of the main elements of the set of facts of an administrative offense for contempt of court or the Constitutional Court. It has been indicated that, unlike the established affirmation, the object of an administrative offense is not public relations in the field of judicial proceedings, but their specific element – it is the obligation of participants of the trial to comply with the established rules of conduct as part of the content of procedural legal relations. It has been clarified that the action, as a feature of the objective aspect of the offense under the Art. 185-3 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses can be manifested either in the action or omission. The main possible manifestations of actions and omission as manifestations of contempt of court or the Constitutional Court of Ukraine have been highlighted. The author has supported propositions on formalization of general rules of conduct in court and during court hearings. The author has proved the necessary to study the correlation of procedural and administrative offences committed during a court hearing, as well as the ratio of procedural coercive measures with administrative liability measures for contempt of court or the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The author has clarified the expediency to unify approaches on determining the concept of “malicious evasion from appearing in court” in terms of the multiplicity of committing the offense. It has been stated that subjects of an administrative offense for contempt of court can be divided into general and special ones. It has been emphasized that an expert as a special subject of an administrative offense under the Art. 185-3 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses is solely responsible for contempt of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. Therefore, the author has offered to admit an expert as a special subject of administrative liability for contempt of court.

Investigative errors related to improper application of criminal law

Investigative errors are a fairly broad concept. These include violations of forensic during the investigation, violations of the law on criminal procedure, and violations of the criminal law. It should be noted that most of the mistakes made in the investigation of crimes are also related to the incorrect application of criminal law. Thus, the investigation of crimes depends on the nature of the act. The investigation is unique because each crime has its own characteristics. Therefore, the current issue is quite relevant. Improper application of criminal law will result in both judicial and criminal procedural errors in the conduct of that investigation. Key words: investigation of crimes, criminal law, object, objective aspect, subject, subjective aspect

Illusioned and Alienated: Can Gig Workers Organise Collectively?

By studying the fraudulent benefits of flexibility in the ride-hailing gig economy, this article explains alienation as a condition in which workers are excluded from the product, estranged, and disadvantaged. Material estrangement, an objective aspect of alienation exemplified by arbitrary distribution of income, capitalists’ exclusive access to data, and robotic communication between Uber and their drivers, has many physiological (subjective) manifestations. Dissatisfaction, powerlessness, and isolation as subjective expressions of alienation prominently shape the prospects of collective labour mobilisation by both sparking and hindering organisational potential. Additionally, the example of workers’ re-appropriation of Uber’s app against Uber explains how modern technologies serve not only as a medium to expand capitalist interests, but enhance possibilities for labour cooperation and liberation. The proposed argumentation uses the Autonomist Marxist concept of “social factory” as a meta-framework, drawing on original ethnographic and interview data on ride-hailing Uber drivers in the gig economy.

CLASSIFICATION OF COMPLICITY IN THE HOLDING THE HIGHEST POSITION WITHIN THE CRIMINAL HIERARCHY

The author considered the classification of accomplices' acts in obtaining by a person of the highest position within the criminal hierarchy (the thief-in-law status). The research took into account the causal connections between the elements of the co-enforcement system regarding such crime. The paper divided the objective aspect of obtaining the highest position within the criminal hierarchy (the status of a thief in the law) into stages depending on the content of the crime co-perpetrators actions. The author considered the situations with a voluntary refusal of a person from the obtained highest position within the criminal hierarchy (the status of a thief in the law) as well as the conditions for co-executors active repentance. The paper defines an applicant to obtain the highest position within the criminal hierarchy (the thief-in-law status) as a performer. The study established that the status leaders become the co-perpetrators of a crime participating in the decision to grant a person the highest position in the criminal hierarchy (the status of a thief in the law). The co-perpetrators of this crime also include persons who consciously and purposefully disseminate the information about the assignment of a person to the highest position in the criminal hierarchy (the status of a thief in the law). Personal voluntary renunciation of the acquired highest position in the criminal hierarchy (the status of a thief in the law) should be made openly, for example, using the status in social networks or a chat. Active repentance of the accomplices of the crime under consideration provides for the voluntary refusal of a person from the acquired highest position in the criminal hierarchy (the status of a thief in law).

Interrelationship between the concepts of vector of evolution and management of sustainable evolution

Within the framework of the system of categories and principles of the St. Petersburg scientific school of social synergetics, problems of relationship between managing the course of history and determining its main vector, as well as freedom and responsibility, “correctness” and “success” of a subject choosing options for social evolution, are involved in research. People through whom “evolutionary mechanisms” are realized as the main carriers of evolutionary changes, significantly modify “causal factors” due to their consciousness and freedom, which, being in a synergistic sense, are defined as a specific analogue of casualty, as a factor that changes the ratio of evolutionary opportunities of system. Freedom only arises in the conditions of super selection, that is, it occurs in the conditions of control, on the part of a subject, over the variety of selection forms, where “slyness” of human mind manifests itself. The degree of choice “correctness” is determined subjectively on the basis of proximity to the dominant social ideal. The criterion of stable reproduction of the social ideal can be an optimal amount of sacrifices made in the name of its realization. The objective aspect of choice is related to the concept of “luck”, and is determined by the proximity to the super attractor — the unique set of evolutionary opportunities concerning developing the social system.

The problems of distinguishing administrative offenses and crimes relevant to the high-alert regime

The article is devoted to the current issues of regulating administrative responsibility for offenses related to the global challenge of our time: the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors investigate the problems of administrative offenses qualification. In particular, the article describes the problem of distinguishing between offenses and crimes that are similar in their objective aspect, based on possible errors of legislative regulation. The existing practice of applying the analyzed articles of legislation has been studied. Difficulties and ambiguities in the qualification of offenses have been noted. In practice, solutions to the problems of qualification are noted in distinguishing between administrative offenses as well as delimiting offenses from crimes. Distinguishing of that kind is important due to blurred borders in concepts of socially dangerous acts and offenses, based not on the interpretation of the dispositions of norms content, but on the amount of sanctions or signs of the subject. It is concluded that it is necessary to apply a systemic approach in law when securing norms that are similar in their objective aspect in related branches of law. In this regard, recommendations are given for optimizing legal regulation in this area.