ІНСТИТУТ КРИМІНАЛЬНОГО ПРОСТУПКУ У ЗАКОНОДАВСТВІ ЗАРУБІЖНИХ КРАЇН

Abstract

The analysis of scientific works on the definition of crime and misdemeanor in the legislation of foreign countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Baltic countries, England, USA, Canada) was carried out. It was found that different criteria are used to distinguish between a crime and a misdemeanor in the criminal law of foreign countries: the main ones are: the material criterion (seriousness of the act) in France; a formal criterion (the amount of punishment) in Austria and Germany, in Germany this division is based on the minimum amount of punishment that can be imposed for their commission; formal sign (type of punishment) in Switzerland; form of guilt in Poland. It was concluded that scientists single out a criminal misdemeanor as a special type of criminal offense, which has a relatively low level of public safety, leads to a greater application of the principles of humanism and a regime of responsibility other than crimes. The issue of normative legal acts regulating criminal misdemeanors is considered. It is noted that the law of Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal has a direct requirement to define misdemeanors in the laws. In other states, the composition of misdemeanors and penalties for them are established both in laws and by-laws. In the author's opinion, it is more expedient to regulate the various aspects of a criminal misdemeanor both by laws and by-laws; the latter detail and concretize the legislative prescriptions, without going beyond them at the same time. The debate on the expediency of adopting an independent (separate) normative act on criminal misdemeanor was considered. Attention is drawn to the argumentation of the advantages of the simplified proceedings of the institution of a criminal misdemeanor and its features, the grounds for its isolation in the criminal legislation. The proposals of specialists regarding the adoption of this practice in Ukraine and its further improvement were considered.