Depravity and lewd acts under Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the coordinates of legal certainty

Abstract

The article contains critical remarks on the wording of Article 156 ("Depravity of minors") of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, reveals its inconsistency with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Violence of 25.10.2007, as well as lack of legislation the content and scope of the concepts of "depravity" (Article 156 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and "lewd acts" (Articles 181, 156, 302 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), which in accordance with the principle of legal certainty is a violation of Article 8 of the Constitution of Ukraine. The thesis about the inadmissibility of sending the blanket norm of criminal legislation (Articles 181, 156, 302 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) to unspecified norms of morality, which, in turn, is historically variable and differs depending on religion, political or corporate preferences, views of minorities or people of different races, nationalities and genders, etc. A new version of Article 156 ("Depravity of a person under the age of sixteen") of the Criminal Code of Ukraine has been proposed.