Principles of criminal law of Ukraine and principles of criminal law protection of professional activity of law enforcement officers

Abstract

The article analyzes the links between the basic principles of criminal law of Ukraine and the principles governing criminal law protection of professional activities of law enforcement agencies. Special attention is paid to the study of interaction and impact of these principles on law enforcement. The author refers to the contributions of national scholars who have studied the nature of certain principles of criminal law and offers a systematic analysis for further improvement of the regulatory framework. The author emphasizes that modern changes in criminal law should reflect not only historical experience, but also modern challenges that require a deeper understanding and application of the principles of justice, legality, humanism and democracy. The author also emphasizes the need to enshrine the principles in the new edition of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in order to comply with international standards and ensure legal certainty and objectivity of law enforcement. According to the author, there is a need for greater clarity and systematization of the principles of criminal law, and their inclusion in the Criminal Code will help ensure greater transparency and efficiency in their application. The author of the article emphasizes the importance of the principles of criminal law proposed by P. L. Fries, which form the basis for criminal law protection of professional activities of law enforcement agencies, but also emphasizes the possibility of their expansion. In particular, the author proposes new articles for the Criminal Code of Ukraine which include the principles of legality, equality before the law, guilt, justice, individualization of punishment, personal nature of responsibility, humanism, and inevitability of responsibility. The author comes to the conclusion that the principles of criminal law protection of the professional activities of law enforcement agencies are based on constitutional and criminal law principles. The basic principles such as the rule of law, justice, equality before the law, individualization of punishment, and inevitability of liability form the structure of protection of law enforcement officers’ rights. An analysis of the principles which are repeated in constitutional and special criminal provisions shows that it is inappropriate to allocate separate principles for law enforcement officers. The author proposes a two-tier system of principles for effective criminal law protection which avoids duplication of categories and ensures systematic and rational law application.