ON THE LEGAL MODEL OF CRIMINAL OMISSION IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY

Abstract

The article focuses on criminal omission in the field of environmental safety
as a phenomenon of criminal law, defines and describes its specific features and
types, along with characterization of certain elements of the corpus delicti of
criminal offenses committed through omission in the field of environmental
safety.
The author argues that such omission is manifested as a failure to interfere
with the development of an environmentally hazardous situation and a failure to
apply measures (or improper application thereof) to counteract its development,
which ultimately fails to prevent damage to the object protected by criminal law.
Being a condition (and not a cause), criminal omission in the field of
environmental safety cannot directly produce a consequence; rather, it ensures
the emergence of environmentally hazardous consequences through interaction
and combination with the causes (external factors, sources of increased
environmental hazards).
On the basis of the specific features of criminal omission in the field of environmental safety, the author outlines the position of crimes of this category
among other types and forms of criminal behavior, determines the composition of
their elements and formulates a definition that may be useful both in lawmaking
and law enforcement activities.