The Problems of Legal Regulation of the Land Reclamation after the Illegal Coal Mining by the “Black Diggers” (the Kemerovo region example)

Abstract

The article deals with the issues of the legal “irregularity” of criminal and material responsibility of the “black diggers” for the illegal production of natural resources in the territory of the Kuzbass. The schemes of production and selling the coal are very different. That is why it is rather difficult to consider them in terms of criminal, arbitration, and administrative processes, especially by considering the issues of reclaiming the lands broken by such illegal activity. This is evidenced by the limited judicial practice of arbitration courts and courts of law of the Kuzbass. There is also no similar practice in other territorial subjects of the Russian Federation. Thus, there is a necessity in urgent developing of the methodical recommendations for the law enforcement officials on the calculation and compensation for the damage, considering the escalating statistical data on the illegal activity of the “black diggers”. Since the production and land reclamation caused by the coal mining are technologically interconnected, there must be an assigned surveillance of the use of a fund and the order of land reclamation to the prosecutor’s office on the surveillance of respecting the lawfulness in the coal-mining industry. These actions are provided for the coal-mining enterprises. For a long time, the “black diggers” have been producing the natural minerals which are the property of the state and they have also been able to escape the attention of the Russian legislation.