The Concept and Attributes of Economic Activity as an Object of Criminal Legal Protection

Economic activity is an organizing category of Russian criminal law and a subject of study in various humanities. In this article, the author argues for the need to identify and interpret the autonomous criminal legal category of “object of criminal legal protection,” which is a basic element in the development of an effective criminal law and which is different in scope and content from the legal structure of the target of crime. Based on an interdisciplinary approach and analysis of theoretical principles of economic theory, sociology, philosophy, and legal sciences, the attributes of economic activity (economic motivation, active and multi-subject nature) are identified, which serve as social basis for the development of the concept of criminal legal protection of economic activity. Economic activity as an object of criminal legal protection is considered as a single structurized social relation (state of facts research) and as an object of primary legal control by positive branches of law (regulatory level research). This technique ensures the reliability of the conclusions and allows one to comply with the fundamental requirement for consistent legal regulation of similar social relations by various branches of law.