The concept and types of economic crime: a comparative analysis of the criminal law of the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union

The need to carry out the study is due to the fact that the legislation in the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on combating economic crime (despite the unity of the EAEU economic space) has significant differences that cannot be considered justified from the point of view of increasing the effectiveness of combating economic crime. These differences are manifested in the fact that for similar crimes in the criminal legislation of the EAEU Member States, sentences differing in nature and severity are established. This situation, in the conditions of free movement of goods, finances and labor resources in the EAEU, according to the author, is contrary to the goals of developing the EAEU common economic space, as well as to the principles of justice and equality of citizens before the law, which are enshrined in the criminal law of all EAEU Member States. In particular, the commission of a crime in such key segments of the economy as customs regulation and entrepreneurship entails significantly different criminal law and criminal procedural consequences for persons prosecuted in some EAEU Member States and does not entail the same consequences in other EAEU Member States. According to the author, these differences also make it difficult to create a unified system for monitoring economic crime in the EAEU in the future and limit the possibilities for joint counteraction to this type of crime. The lack of a common approach to understanding the economic crime and its structure for the EAEU prevents the deepening of the integration of the common economic space of the Union, and can stimulate the “flow” of economic criminal activity into the least rigid national jurisdictions within the EAEU. The results of the study can be used by the EAEU bodies to prepare amendments to the EAEU Treaty, as well as by the legislators of the EAEU Member States in order to ensure the implementation of an agreed criminal policy in the field of combating both economic crime in general and its individual types. The main expected consequence of the publication is the intensification of the efforts of the EAEU member states to formulate coordinated approaches in the field of combating economic crime in a common market. The article is addressed to the authorities of the EAEU, the legislators of the EAEU Member States, scientists studying the problems of combating economic crime, teachers, graduate students and students of legal and economic universities.

Eurasian Economic Union, single economic space, economic crime, criminal legislation of the EAEU Member States, comparative analysis