Correlation of Criminal Law and Civil Law Norms: Problems and Some Ways to Solve Them

The article discusses the current problems of the correlation between criminal and civil law norms in modern conditions. The author analyzes the emerging conflicts between the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and civil legislation on the example of such crimes as illegal entrepreneurial activity (Article 171 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), illegal banking activity (Article 172 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and fictitious bankruptcy (Article 197 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). It is shown that criminal law, being a protective branch, relies on the institutions of civil law and other branches of positive regulation, but in the process of law enforcement, it is forced to take into account only the essential features of civil law institutions, ignoring their formal legal features in some cases. For example, when determining an activity as illegal entrepreneurial or illegal banking, the law enforcement officer ignores the requirement for mandatory registration, since its absence constitutes an objective feature. Special attention is paid to the dissonance between Article 197 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which establishes liability for fictitious bankruptcy, and the current bankruptcy legislation, which came into force in 2002, leading to the de facto non-application of this criminal law provision. The author concludes that this intersectoral conflict between civil and criminal law should be resolved in favor of positive regulation, and its resolution requires legislative intervention.