Exemption from criminal liability due to expiration of the limitations statute

Abstract

Introduction. The statute of limitations is one of the oldest institutions of criminal law, it is necessary to apply at least something. However, the grounds and procedure remain controversial. The purpose of the paper is the analysis of the legal nature of the institution of exemption from criminal liability, practical problems of application of Art. 49 of the Criminal Code and making proposals for possible overcoming of these problems by amending the current Criminal Code. Results. The article analyzes the legal nature of the institution of exemption from criminal liability, its inconsistency with the Constitution of Ukraine and European criminal law. The expediency of the proposed by the draft Criminal Code replacement of exemption from criminal liability for non-sentencing, including by analyzing the practical problems of application of Art. 49 of the Criminal Code. The practice of applying Part 2 of Art. 49 of the Criminal Code, namely the calculation of the statute of limitations in case of evasion of a person from pre-trial investigation or court. To eliminate the contradictions of judicial practice, it is proposed to amend Part 2 of Art. 49 of the Criminal Code: “The statute of limitations provided for in Part 1 of Art. 49 of the Criminal Code, is suspended if the person who committed the criminal offense evaded the pre-trial investigation or court. These statutes of limitations shall be resumed from the date of the person's confession or detention. A person shall be released from criminal liability if fifteen years have elapsed since the day the crime was committed and five years from criminal misconduct, regardless of whether he or she evaded pre-trial investigation or trial”. Conclusion. The institution of exemption from criminal responsibility is on the verge of transformation into an institution of non-sentencing. Such a transformation will bring the domestic criminal legislation closer to the European one and will solve many practical problems of the application of the statute of limitations. However, this is possible only with the adoption of the draft Criminal Code. Solving some problems in the application of Article 49 of the Criminal Code today is possible by amending the article. In particular, Part 2 of Art. 49 of the Criminal Code is proposed to be reworded.