Official document, as the subject of official forgery, in the context of criminal offences in the field of official and professional activities related to the provision of public services

Abstract

The article examines approaches to the criminal law understanding of an official document in Ukrainian criminal law. It substantiates the importance of establishing the characteristics of an official document under domestic law, in particular, when carrying out criminal law classification. The normative definition of the concept of an official document is analysed through the prism of its essential characteristics, as well as existing proposals for changes to criminal legislation and scientific positions regarding the understanding of this concept as the subject of a criminal offence. Attention is drawn to the elements of criminal offences in which the legislator includes an official document among other elements of a criminal offence, and not only as the subject of a criminal offence. The shortcomings of the conceptual apparatus used in the normative definition of the concept of an official document and the expediency of such a definition in general at the level of criminal liability law are pointed out. It is argued that the normative definition of an official document contained in the note to Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the CC) is so general that it also corresponds to the subjects of a number of other offences, and not only those specified in the note. At the same time, using the example of certain criminal offences in the sphere of official activities (Articles 366 and 366-2 of the CC), legislative approaches to the formulation of criminal offences involving official documents are summarised. Attention is drawn to the existence in certain cases of a normative definition of official documents of a certain type (e.g., election documentation). Conclusions have been drawn regarding the essential features of the concept of an official document as the subject of criminal offences in the spheres of economic and official activity, as well as regarding the expediency of normative consolidation of the concept of an official document in its current form.