Specific features of the regulatory definition of incentive criminal sanctions for criminal offences and the ways to improve their application

Abstract

The subject matter of the article is incentive sanctions as a type of criminal law sanctions in the context of their application when a person commits such type of criminal offences as criminal misdemeanours. The study of such sanctions is aimed at identifying the problems of their regulatory definition and finding possible ways to improve these sanctions. Given that there is a significant number of studies on incentive sanctions of the General Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the article focuses on the sanctions of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine which are incentive sanctions and may be applied for criminal offences. In researching this issue, the methods of analysis and synthesis, the dialectical method and the method of comparison were mainly used. The first study of the problems of regulatory certainty of incentive sanctions for criminal offences has been carried out, and the shortcomings of the regulatory definition of certain sanctions have been identified and the problems of their application have been clarified, taking into account the content of the dispositions of such articles. Among the incentive sanctions of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the sanctions contained in Part 3 of Article 175, Part 4 of Article 309, Part 4 of Article 311, Part 6 of Article 361 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine are considered. In the course of the study, the article reveals the shortcomings of the statutory definition of such sanctions with due regard to the dispositions of certain articles. Based on this, and taking into account the doctrinal approaches, the study provides substantiated proposals for improving the regulatory certainty of incentive criminal sanctions under these articles. The suggested proposals may be considered in the course of rule-making and, if enshrined in the CC of Ukraine, will contribute to more efficient application of incentive provisions and achievement of the purpose of their application. In this regard, the problems of regulatory definition of incentive sanctions under Part 3 of Article 175, Part 4 of Article 309, Part 4 of Article 311, Part 6 of Article 361 of the CC of Ukraine are analysed and reasonable proposals for their improvement are made with due regard to the purpose of application of such sanctions.