Legal principles of pre-trial investigation war crimes

Abstract

The modern legal principles of the activity of law enforcement agencies regarding the investigation of war crimes have been defined. It is emphasized that war crimes are complex in terms of their mechanism of commission, which is characterized by consequences in the form of significant destruction of civilian infrastructure objects, a large number of unidentified dead; instruments of commission, which neither pre-trial investigation bodies nor forensic experts have encountered before; by persons of criminals who change their locations, including those who are in the territory of another state, etc. It is noted that in Ukraine since the declaration of the legal regime of martial law by the Decree of the President of Ukraine, significant changes have taken place in the criminal procedural legislation, which established a special regime of pre-trial investigation and trial under martial law conditions, provided for in Section IX-1 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. It is noted that the pre-trial investigation of war crimes requires considerable expenditure of resources, including human resources, due to which employees of various law enforcement agencies, including units of the National Police, are involved in carrying out certain procedural actions. Legal problems in the activities of the National Police of Ukraine regarding the organizational features of the pre-trial investigation that need to be resolved at the legislative and departmental levels are highlighted. Proposals are made to improve the legislation on the regulation of the term “war crime” in the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The requirements regarding the procedure for collecting evidence of war crimes for the purpose of further transfer of materials for consideration by the International Criminal Court have been updated. Attention is focused on the fact that the principles, subjects and forms of interaction at the national and international levels during the pre-trial investigation of war crimes should be properly regulated. During the writing of the article, the methods of dialectics, comparative legal and systemic analysis, and formal logic were used.