Financial legal relations in cyberspace as an object of criminal law protection

Abstract

According to the author, the current trend of digitalization of relations in the field of finance, which is observed today, entails the need to revise approaches to the essence of financial legal relations. Public relations on the formation, distribution and use of financial assets should be regarded as financial and subject to criminal law protection. At the same time, these legal relations do not necessarily develop with the participation of the state and are characterized as public law and state power. The expansion of the list of financial assets fixed by the author allows substantiating the conclusion that in the conditions of the modern information society in cyberspace, not only redistribution takes place, but also the creation of a social product. At the same time, the current legislation in this area lags behind the dynamically developing social relations. In support of this, the author cites a technology for creating digital documents that has not yet been formalized by law through the use of the capabilities of non-fungible NFT tokens. The author emphasizes that the opportunities provided by cyberspace are actively used by attackers for criminal purposes. Documents that define the strategy for the development of the Russian state and ensuring national security, as well as the doctrine of criminal law, adequately assess the threat of financial crimes in cyberspace. The tasks of the criminal law protection of financial legal relations outlined in the criminal law, contrary to the positions expressed in the scientific literature, also quite fully reflect the role of criminal law in combating crime of this type. Contrary to the approach prevailing in the doctrine of criminal law, whose supporters focus on the method of committing financial crimes, the author connects the prospects for studying the identified issues with an analysis of the specifics of cyberspace as a special area for committing such crimes. In this regard, the scientific article highlights the signs of financial legal relations in cyberspace.