Land as a Potential Subject of Theft

<jats:p>This article examines the problem of defining land as the subject of a crime. A distinction is made between the categories of “land” and “land plot.” It is concluded that “land” acquires the property of negotiability only after the separation of “land plots” from its composition as independent real estate objects with unique cadastral identification numbers, which serve as the subject of theft along with a set of corresponding property rights. Land theft involves the acquisition of rights to newly created land plots from a portion of a land mass when, as a result of a crime, the area of land as an object of public law owned by the state or municipalities is reduced, thereby causing damage. “Land” can be the subject of environmental crimes, for example, under Article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Moreover, the subject of the crime, as applied to the elements of poisoning, pollution, or other damage to land, includes both unallocated land and allocated land plots registered in the state cadastral register.</jats:p>