Legal and technical defects and issues of systematization of the norms of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

This article is devoted to a comprehensive study of the problems of systematization of the norms of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Crimes in the Sphere of Economic Activity") in the context of the intensive transformation of economic relations and criminal legislation at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. The purpose of the work is to identify key legal and technical defects in the structure of the chapter and to develop scientifically substantiated principles for its organization that ensure the logical integrity and effectiveness of criminal-legal protection of the economy. The study is based on the analysis of the evolution of the chapter, which has doubled over the past three decades (from 32 articles in the 1996 edition to 61 current articles in 2025) due to the criminalization of new forms of economic crimes caused by technological progress and the diversification of economic processes. The main findings of the study indicate a deep structural and systemic heterogeneity of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Firstly, the absence of a single criterion for grouping articles was revealed, which led to the inclusion of norms that do not correspond to its generic object. Secondly, gross violations of legal technique were diagnosed, including: violation of the principle of uniqueness of the main object of protection in Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; the presence of “dead” norms that are practically not used in judicial practice; casuistry and excessive detailing of dispositions; disproportionate sanctions; chaotic presentation of qualifying features along the “vertical”.