INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL CRIMINALIZATION OF ILLICIT TRAFFICKING IN AND USE OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

The article deals with the issues of international legal criminalization of various types of weapons of mass destruction, as well as the problems of implementing these international norms in Russian criminal law. The author separately studies the concepts of chemical, biological, toxin weapons, as well as other types of weapons of mass destruction based on relevant international conventions. Innovative is the author’s approach to the study of the elements of the crimes under consideration. Thus, while analyzing, first, the norms of international law, the author does this through the prism of the elements of crimes, which is not typical for the analysis of international legal norms, but traditional in the study of the norms of the national criminal frame. At the same time, Russian criminal law is also not left without attention. The author reveals the implementing norms and compares them with the corresponding provisions of international acts. In addition to traditional and well-known international treaties prohibiting illicit trafficking in weapons of mass destruction, the author analyzes the Treaty on the Prohibition of nuclear weapons adopted by the United Nations on July 7, 2017, which is practically not mentioned in the scientific literature, but plays an important role in the prohibition of nuclear weapons. Based on the results of the work, the author also makes relevant conclusions and proposals to the national legislator to improve and bring the Russian criminal law in line with the corresponding norms of international law on the prohibition of weapons of mass destruction in order to clarify the implementing norms, since at present there are inaccuracies in the wording of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in terms of establishing criminal liability for the illicit use of and trafficking in weapons of mass destruction.

weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons, biological weapons, toxin weapons, nuclear weapons, use, trafficking, development, testing, Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Knyazkina A. K. International and national criminalization of illicit trafficking in and use of weapons of mass destruction. Biznes. Obrazovanie. Pravo = Business. Education. Law. 2023;2(63):318—322. DOI: 10.25683/VOLBI.2023.63.664.