Addressing Some of the Legal Challenges Posed by the Coronavirus Infection Control System (COVID-19)

Objective of the study. The aim of this study is to review the innovations amended to the criminal legislation in order to establish a system of measures to combat new coronavirus infection spread in the Russian Federation (COVID-19), identifying current problems and formulating proposals to enhance the relevant criminal law provisions and their application. The object of the study is the social relations connected with the establishment and implementation of new criminal law prohibitions aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. The subject of the study is a complex of legislative and theoretical-applied problems of criminal justice response to crimes that could lead to large-scale negative social effects in the form of sanitary and epidemiological condition significant deterioration in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia and in the world. The analysis of the corresponding new provisions of criminal legislation, the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, official statistical data on convictions for the relevant crimes have been undertaken in this study. The methodological basis of the study is the universal dialectical method, general scientific and specific scientific methods, including legal modelling one. Conclusions. Based on the results of the study conducted, the author concludes on the need to further improvement of criminal legislation on liability for crimes involving threats to public health. In furtherance of the objective, the article formulates and substantiates specific proposals for the further elaboration of criminal law response to such crimes at their regulatory and practical levels.

COVID-19, public health, coronavirus infection, COVID-19, legal regulation, countermeasures