Theoretical and Methodological Foundations of Criminal-Legal Protection of Economic Relations under Market Economy Conditions

Abstract

The article investigates the theoretical and methodological foundations of criminal-legal protection of economic relations under market economy conditions in Ukraine. The content of key categories is outlined – «criminal-legal protection», «economic relations», «economic activity», «economic crime» – and a distinction is drawn between economic-legal, civil-legal, financial-legal, and criminal-legal aspects of protection. The structure of the object of encroachment under Chapter VII of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is revealed, and the relationship between generic and direct objects of individual elements of crime is substantiated. Doctrinal concepts of protective, regulatory, and preventive functions of criminal law in the economy and paradigms of criminalisation – public choice school, law and economics, and the ordoliberal approach – are analytically compared. The principle of ultima ratio is examined as a methodological limit to criminal-legal intervention into the freedom of entrepreneurship, and the problem of «overcriminalisation» in post-Soviet jurisdictions is highlighted. The institutional architecture of law enforcement – activities of the Bureau of Economic Security, prosecutor’s office, and police – is investigated based on statistical data for 2020–2024, revealing contradictions between the scope of criminalisation and the effectiveness of investigations. International standards (EU Directive 2017/1371 PIF, CoE Convention CETS 198, FATF and GRECO recommendations) and comparative-legal models of Germany, Poland, and France are separately examined. Challenges of wartime and the European integration dimension of the reform of Chapter VII of the Criminal Code are considered through the prism of the draft new Criminal Code of Ukraine. Priorities of reform are proposed: consistent implementation of the ultima ratio principle, minimisation of the blanket nature of dispositions, and full implementation of the PIF Directive and CETS 198 with the introduction of genuine criminal liability of legal entities.