Offences in the sphere of customs affairs: public danger and the criteria of differentiation

The present study analyzes the issues related to defining customs offences, the public danger they present and the problems of differentiation of their types. It is pointed out that currently the fight against customs offences is waged both by means of the norms of administrative law, or through criminal law response. The choice of punishment depends on the degree of public danger that poses a specific offence. At the same time, the authors draw attention to some inconsistency in the norms of administrative and criminal legislation regarding the regulation of liability for customs offenses, which causes certain difficulties in their suppression. This does not lead to a uniform understanding of the law, and, consequently, does not contribute to effective counteraction to these offences. In this regard, there are presented specific recommendations on improvement of domestic legislation.