Genesis of legal regulation of legal responsibility for illegal cross- ing of the state border under the legislation acted by Ukraine

Abstract

In a scientific article, the authors conducted a scientific study of the development of legal regulation of legal liability for illegal crossing of the state border under the legislation in force in the Ukrainian lands. Based on the study, the authors concluded that the first mention of violations of the order of entry into and exit from Ukraine occurs in “Russian Truth”, which, however, did not provide legal liability for illegal crossing of the state border by persons who were not slaves or slaves (the latter were responsible not for illegal crossing, but for fleeing from the owner). There was no legal responsibility for the illegal crossing of the state border in the Polish-Lithuanian and Cossack periods of Ukrainian history. Criminal liability for unauthorized travel abroad was introduced in parts of the Ukrainian lands in connection with the adoption of the Conciliar Act of 1649. In the later period, from 1723, criminal liability in the Ukrainian lands that were part of the Russian Empire was provided for illegal crossing of the state border for treason or other malicious intent, and in other cases illegal crossing of the border was an administrative offense. After the adoption in Russia of the Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishment in 1845, illegal crossing of the state border ceased to be an administrative offense and began to provide only criminal liability. Illegal crossing of the state border remained a crime under the legislation in force in Ukraine, regardless of the purpose of crossing, until 2004. In the period from 2004 to 2018, those guilty of illegally crossing the state border were solely administratively liable, but currently crossing the state border of Ukraine in order to harm the interests of the state or a person banned from entering Ukraine, or representatives of armed units forces or other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor state in any way outside the checkpoints across the state border of Ukraine or at checkpoints across the state border of Ukraine without relevant documents, or on documents containing inaccurate information again criminalized.