Real Estate as a Subject of Theft: a Socio-Historical Analysis

The article deals with the actual problems of classifying real estate as objects of theft and, above all, fraud. The importance of solving this kind of issue from the standpoint of the history of legal regulation is determined, the socio-economic significance of real estate in modern society is shown. The conclusion is made about the change in the social essence of real estate during the historical development, which influenced the legal regulation of the protection of rights to real estate, including the norms of criminal law. The prerequisites and possibilities of the historical and legal approach in this part are considered. Characteristics are given to the main trends in the development of legal understanding about real estate as an object of criminal encroachment and, first of all, theft. The author came to the conclusion that such development is largely due to a change in the content characteristics of the right to real estate, on the one hand, and a clarification of the place of ownership in the system of other rights to real estate, on the other. In addition, the concept of fraud as a type of criminal behavior has historically changed. The paper identifies priorities in the area under study of the post-revolutionary period, which did not hasten to take full advantage of the previous historical experience and offered its own vision of the issue. Based on the results of the study, conclusions were drawn about the opportunities for improving the legislation on criminal liability for theft of real estate provides the genesis of Russian law.