Common law approaches to the modern understanding of transparency in the sphere of public administration and judiciary have been considered. On the basis of the models for the definition of this concept and its content proposed in the specialized scientific literature, the author's definition of the transparency of criminal justice has been proposed. The circle of elements included in its content has been outlined, which have been also defined. Based on the provisions of the idea of judicial transparency in general, the definition has been formulated and the main features of the concept of criminal justice transparency have been outlined. Transparency of criminal justice is a principle that includes such principles of criminal court activity as transparency, openness, publicity, publicity, access to public information, accountability. On the basis of the analysis of criminal procedural norms that reveal the content of the principles of publicity and openness, suggestions have been made regarding: 1) increasing the degree of legal certainty of the norms that regulate the procedure for consideration by the investigating judge of a request for the conduct of secret investigative (search) actions; 2) it is necessary to take into account that the list of grounds provided for in Art. 27 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, is not exhaustive, and/or to provide for the grounds indicated in this article, or to indicate that other cases provided for by the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine are possible. In this regard, it has been proposed to supplement Part 2 of Article 27 of the CPC of Ukraine with paragraph 6 as follows: “When the investigating judge considers the petitions of the investigator, agreed with the prosecutor, or the prosecutor to conduct covert investigative (search) actions, temporary access to things and documents (if there is a real threat of alteration or destruction of things or documents), as well as in case of need to ensure the seizure of property”; 3) the fact that the legislator, when setting out paragraph 1 of Part 2 of Article 27 of the CPC of Ukraine had not taken into account the fact that at the stage of pre-trial investigation the circumstances concerning the minor are also subject to consideration by the court, i.e. the investigating judge. Therefore, in such cases, one should talk about the expediency of protecting the personal interests of the suspect, who is already a minor, and not the accused. On the basis of the above, it has been proposed to set out paragraph 1, part 2 of Art. 27 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine in the following version: “If the accused or suspect is a minor”.

Purpose. Defining legal means of protection of public relations in the field of amber mining in Ukraine, providing scientific and practical interpretation of protection legislation in this area and scientifically sound recommendations for its improvement. Methodology. The methodological basis of the study is a system of general and special methods of cognition: the dialectical method was used to learn the essence of such a phenomenon as the protection of public relations in the field of amber mining in Ukraine; the system-structural method in the analysis of forms of socially dangerous acts of crimes under Art. Art. 240, 240-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; the logical-dogmatic method when interpreting certain terms used in the sciences of geology, administrative and criminal law, contained in the provisions of current legislation, as well as in formulating definitions of legal concepts and developing recommendations for improving legal norms; the comparative law method in the study on the ratio of socially dangerous acts under Art. Art. 201-1, 240, 240-1, 305 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; general methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, abstraction, generalization) in the study on scientific and regulatory sources. Findings. As a result of the study, the inconsistency of certain norms of criminal, administrative and customs legislation was established, which form the components of offenses in the field of illegal amber mining in Ukraine and establish the types and extent of responsibility for their commission, in particular: competition of certain norms, their inefficiency, disproportionate severity violation of the degree of their social danger. The scientific and practical interpretation is given of the forms of socially dangerous act provided by Art. 240-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, a comparative analysis is conducted of criminal, administrative and customs offenses in this area and proposals are provided to improve criminal, administrative and customs legislation, the rules of which protect public relations in the field of amber mining in Ukraine. Originality. It is proposed: 1) to supplement the Criminal Code of Ukraine, Art. 240-2, which provides for criminal liability for amber smuggling; 2) to supplement Chapter 68 of the Customs Code of Ukraine with Article 483-1, which provides for administrative liability for smuggling of amber in small amounts; 3) to supplement the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses with Article 58-2, which provides for administrative liability for illegal extraction of amber, its sale, purchase, storage, transfer, shipment, transportation, processing in small amounts. Practical value. Proposals to improve the current criminal, administrative and customs legislation are aimed at improving the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies against illegal amber mining in Ukraine.