Is a vehicle an object, instrument or means of committing a criminal offense under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine?

The criminal law provision provided for in Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is formulated as a violation of the rules of road safety or operation of transport by persons driving vehicles. It is established that the criminal law doctrine is ambiguous in resolving the issue of the place of a vehicle in the structure of elements of a criminal offense. Some scientific positions are expressed as categorical, which indicates insufficient attention to this issue. The author conducts a textual analysis of the legislative definition of the concept of “vehicle” provided for in the note to Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It is stated that in the context of determining the content of a vehicle as a sign of a criminal offense, it is necessary to establish compliance with the features of the generic concept of “vehicle” provided for by the Road Traffic Safety Rules, as well as with the special features – the presence of an engine which drives a vehicle or an electric motor with a power of more than 3 kW, while some other types of vehicles can move without such an engine. The author identifies the practical aspects of taking into account the content of the note to Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in court practice. The author considers the issue of correlation between such features of a criminal offense as the object, means and instruments of a criminal offense. The author establishes the importance of vehicle use in the mechanism of causing substantial damage to the object of a criminal offense under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. It is emphasized that the use of a vehicle should be recognized as a dynamic feature of the criminal offense under consideration. The author concludes that a vehicle in the construction of this corpus delicti is an instrument of a criminal offense, which is due to the following: a) a vehicle has a direct physical impact on the victim, and therefore the use of this instrument is included by the legislator in the mechanism of causing damage to the direct object; b) the nature of a socially dangerous act in the structure of the objective side of the corpus delicti under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine makes it expedient to use an auxiliary instrument.