Violation of Covid-19 Prevention Rules and Regulations: Current Issues of Criminal and Administrative Liability

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify problematic issues of qualification of violations of sanitary rules and regulations for the prevention of infectious diseases and mass poisoning, shortcomings in the construction of relevant prohibitive legal norms, identify ways to solve them and formulate proposals for improvement. The article uses a set of scientific methods, namely: terminological, system-structural, formal-logical, comparative-legal. The theoretical basis of the study are the works of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Code of Administrative Offenses, as well as the practice of their application. The scientific novelty of the article is that it highlights certain aspects of the social conditionality of the prohibitive criminal law provided for in Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; the tendency of significant influence of the pandemic caused by a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on dynamics and structure of crime is revealed; attention is drawn to the need to investigate the grounds for administrative or possibly criminal liability for intentional coughing, spitting or sneezing on emergency workers and other subjects at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus. The problematic issues related to the violation of sanitary rules and regulations for the prevention of infectious diseases and mass poisoning are identified, as well as some ways to solve them. According to the results of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: 1) social conditionality of the prohibitive criminal law provided by Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is determined by various circumstances, including the need to force citizens to comply with quarantine measures, social distancing, self-isolation and other rules and regulations for the prevention of infectious diseases, because they can significantly minimize their growth and consequences; 2) the pandemic caused by coronavirus disease (COVID-19) significantly affects the dynamics and structure of crime in the world, in particular by reducing the level of crime as a whole during quarantine and its transformation; 3) given the presence in Ukraine and the spread in the world of such a form of encroachment on emergency workers and other subjects at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus (especially law enforcement and medical personnel) as intentional coughing, spitting or sneezing on such persons, it is necessary to investigate the question of the grounds for administrative or possibly criminal liability for such illegal acts; 4) a detailed analysis of the provisions of Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as well as its application in practice allowed to identify a number of problematic issues that are related to: a) difficulties in establishing a clear list of prohibited acts given their dispersion under various regulations, constant change, contradiction of some of them with the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as the establishment of different rules in different territories in certain cases; b) determining the limits of socially dangerous consequences of the crime under Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in view of the existence of such a consequence as «creating a threat of the spread of infectious diseases, mass non-communicable diseases (poisonings)»; c) separation of said offences from the administrative offense under Art. 44³ of the Code of Administrative Offenses; d) debatable provisions regarding the subject of the specified crime (in Art. 325 –general or special subject); e) insufficient justification of sanctions under Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and Art. 44³ the Code of Administrative Offenses; e) the validity of the investigated criminal law; 5) some ways to solve mentioned problems are proposed, in particular: a) the need to amend the legislation in order to create clearer criteria for distinguishing the crime under Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine from the administrative offense provided by Art. 44³ the Code of Administrative Offenses are substantiated; b) arguments regarding the subject of violation of sanitary rules and regulations for the prevention of infectious diseases and mass poisoning is common are given; c) proposition to include in the sanction of Art. 44³ of the Code of Administrative Offenses such an administrative penalty as a warning are made; d) the need for a legislative solution to the issue of the legal fate of Art. 325 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine from June 18, 2020 are emphasized.

Keywords: coronavirus; COVID-19; sanitary violations; pandemic; criminal liability; infectious disease; mass poisoning; isolation; quarantine; social distancing.