Peculiarities of the Liability for Illegal Extraction and Circulation of Amber, Nephrite or Other Semi-Precious Stones

In a scientific article, the authors examined in detail the main problems arising in judicial and investigative practice associated with the application of updated editions of criminal law norms, which secure responsibility for illegal circulation and unauthorized extraction of amber, jade and other semiprecious stones (Articles 191 and 255 of the Criminal Code RF). It has been established that the practice of applying these norms, even taking into account their low prevalence and rather high latency, is extremely small. According to the official data of the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for the year for the illegal circulation of jade, only one person was convicted of a crime under Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to the authors, this situation is due to a number of problems associated with the legislative presentation of the elements of the offenses provided for in Art. 191 and 255 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, their inconsistency with each other, with the composition of the administrative offense under Art. 7.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, the lack of a unified approach to understanding the subject of these crimes, as well as the lack of effective methods for determining its size. In the conclusion, sufficiently substantiated measures are proposed to optimize criminal liability for these types of crimes.