The problem of the relationship between the concepts of “public order” and “public safety” in modern legal science

Ensuring public order and safety is one of the main state tasks, one of the priority areas of state policy in the sphere of national security of the Russian Federation. Currently, the level of public safety is low, the situation continues to be unstable, which is complicated by the aggravated foreign policy relations, threats to the integrity of the state from external aggressors, worsening crime situation in the country, terrorist activity, activities of extremist groups, abuse of alcohol products, narcotic and psychotropic substances, as well as threats of man-made and natural origin, which can be countered only with the constant improvement of public safety systems. Being an object of criminal law protection, crimes against public safety and public order are singled out in a separate section of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and the protection of public order and public safety are defined in Article 2 among the tasks of the code. The legal and technical design of Section IX of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the use by the legislator of the concepts of “public safety” and “public order” raise questions in the course of law enforcement and discussion in the scientific community. In this regard, implementing state policy to ensure public order and security, it is necessary to understand the essential nature of social phenomena, including by comparing such related concepts as “public order” and “public safety”. In the course of the study, we come to the conclusion that these concepts are interconnected, their semantic fields intersect, thereby one ensures the implementation of the other, but each of them has its own content. In this regard, the concepts differ in their nature, scope of regulation. The issue of the relationship of these categories in the scientific community remains one of the debatable, which requires separate coverage.